Secret Invasion Redone
by Fanboyimus Prime
Summary: What Secret Invasion would be if the Avengers and Iron Man were in character and the whole thing wasn't just a lead in to Dark Reign.
1. Chapter 1

In the lab of the Savage Land mutate Brainchild was Tony Stark, the Invincible Iron Man and he tried to figure out how things had gotten to this point.

'How could this happen? How did the Skrulls manage to catch everyone off guard?' Tony Stark thought while looking through Brainchild's base for anything useful. The recent battle that Deadpool had with the Savage Land Mutates had done heavy damage to it.

Iron Man hoped that Rhodey would be able to deal with whatever the Skrulls were up to. They were always up to something. Usually conquering or blowing things up.

Suddenly a table covered in all sorts of devices appeared in the room. Stark found the note attached to it.

Thought you could use this.-Cable

"Great I got Skrulls, and now the wild card of the X-family gets involved," Tony muttered to himself.

To be honest Tony never liked Cable at all. He was thankful they were in completely different circles of the world and in the super hero community. Other then teaming up to fight Donald Pierce once he couldn't recall ever meeting Nathan 'way too many middle names' Summers.

'He's a complete enigma,' Stark thought 'And keeps changing his MO every so often, making nearly impossible to predict. Though gun trotting warrior, or psychic messiah, leader of X-Force or a member of the X-Men…he always makes a mark and is up to something.'

It was near instinctive for Stark to understand the equipment. It was partly due to Extremis, which the Skrull virus didn't destroy, and the fact this equipment was based off his own designs. Tony also had hope given he'd have to be alive to design this technology without Cable sending it to him. Time travel made things like that less certain then more certain to Iron Man.

'These are upgrades to the device Reed and I made to expose that imposter Captain America should work on the current batch of Skrulls,' Tony thought as he went to work. Tony remembered how a stranded Skrull turned Captain America into an even bigger super star so he could take Steve's form and use that status to cause everyone to think anything 'different' was really a Skrull in disguise and have America rip itself to shreds. And all so he could get revenge on ending up stranded on Earth.

Whatever Cable's reasons for giving out this technology it was quite possible that it would save the world from the Skrulls. Tony knew that their taking over the world was not in Cable's plans.

It was one of the few things Tony was sure of involving Cable. And he noted that not even Cannonball, Domino or Cyclops could honestly understand what Cable's plans were all the time.

'Enough thinking about enigmatic mutants,' Tony thought. "I got bigger problems."

V-V-V

Not too far away from where Tony Stark was working was a crashed star ship and it was filled with metahumans, living and some considered dead wearing older versions of their costumes. Their story was that they were the real articles and had managed to escape from the Skrulls.

With their minds filled with paranoia and having encountered Skrulls that could hide themselves as humans so well that not even people with a sense of smell like Wolverine and Daredevil could tell them from the original article the two teams of Avengers dealt with the matter in usual super hero fashion.

Beat the crap out them all and sort out who is what later.

Flying overhead Sentry, who claimed to have the power of a million exploding suns, confronted the Vision that came out of the star ship. The Vision didn't want to discuss why he was the real Vision with the Guardian of Good.

"I'm Void and it is all your fault," Vision gleefully stated as his body shifted to look more like the Void.

Sentry recoiled in fear and self loathing. Void/Vision found this amusing, and extremely easy. He wondered why K'lurt never used his powers this way on Sentry. It wasn't a challenge at all.

The incredibly powerful super hero's mind was as malleable as Skrullian flesh. It was frankly amusing to play with. And the fool liked like he was about run off crying.

Then suddenly Void/Vision was slammed in the back of the head and his eye contact with Sentry was shattered. The false Vision was then blasted into the ground with an energy blast.

"I don't know who you are, but you aren't the Vision or Void," Ms. Marvel snarled.

Suddenly Ms. Marvel was hit with a blast of ice from "Void". Vision looked enraged at having been knocked out of the sky and his fun interrupted.

"No, I am not," Vision remarked and suddenly shifted his form. "I am Paibok the Power Skrull! And while he might love you, I hate every one of your kind!"

"Finally something simple to deal with," Luke Cage said as he slugged Paibok in the jaw. The force of the blow from the former Hero for Hire knocked the super powered Skrull back a few steps.

Paibok armored up like the X-Man Colossus. Luke Cage's eyes widened as Paibok's punch sent the former Power Man flying. Luke Cage was driven through several trees before stopping. Even for someone with skin as hard as steel it was painful.

"Finally someone we know is the enemy for the first time in this mess," Ronin commented happily as he fired off some arrows he got from the fallen imposter Hawkeye. As odd as that was, Clint felt like he was coming home again with a bow in hand and arrows flying at the bad guys. It felt so good and like it was the right thing to the strong willed super hero.

"Hawkeye blind him with a flashbang arrow, Ms. Marvel blast him while he's blinded," Wasp ordered.

"On it," Ronin said as he cocked his bow.

"Hey I'm the team leader," Luke Cage grumbled as he got up.

Wasp gave Luke Cage a withering glare. The steel tough skinned super hero flinched even though Wasp was only a few inches tall. Janet had a slight smile showing the former Hero for Hire that here was more to being a leader then saying you were.

Hawkeye fired his flashbang arrow. Paibok seemed amused that anyone thought mere arrows could hurt him. Then there was a massive flash of light and a thunderously loud bang. The Power Skrull covered his eyes.

Ms. Marvel let loose an energy blast at the stunned Skrull. Paibok fired electric blasts at random. Suddenly a red and white shield slammed into Paibok's knees. He was knocked off his feet.

Wasp began to hope against hope that Captain America really was alive and had exited that starship. The world needed the real Captain America more then ever. She had no idea what to make of the current Captain America, supposedly Bucky. The original Bucky who had been found by the Soviets, made into a cyborg and kept on ice until they needed him for an assignment.

Janet then felt strange at how willing to accept such a story she was. And for it to be something she felt was plausible. Yet she'd lived through a lot weirder like when she was turned into a wasp-like being during a crisis that turned out to a lord of time trying to keep them on Earth and busy before Onslaught showed up.

"Foolish Knave!" Thor yelled as he drove Paibok into the ground with his uru hammer. It sounded like a blacksmith hammering on a piece of metal every time Thor struck the Power Skrull.

"Clint I..." Mockingbird pleaded as Hawkeye bore through her with an enraged look on his face. He knew this couldn't be Bobbi. Bobbi was killed way before this Skrull invasion started. Yet she was the one person that hadn't come back. Hell even he had come back two or three times now. Bobbi's soul was in Hell and the Skrulls weren't going to take her soul for this Invasion. This imposter couldn't be her!

"What do you want?" Hawkeye snapped at Mockingbird. She gave him the same angry expression Bobbi would give him when he did something stupid. That made Clint even more pissed off at the Skrulls for what they had done.

"I'm here to help and hurt that he…he was a fake," Mockingbird said sounding sincere to Ronin. She was surprised when that Hawkeye was killed by a dinosaur and he was a Skrull.

Clint was about to give an angry and sarcastic comment when Captain America held up a hand. By reflex that got Clint to be quiet.

"We can discuss whatever problems we have after the fight," Captain America said a calm and firm tone. He didn't have to speak up to get his command across.

Suddenly Thor was sent flying with a massive blast of ice. The Norse God of Thunder looked enraged at that. The Norse God was instantly on his feet spinning his hammer.

"You dare stand against me?" Paibok snarled."Then you will die as well."

Suddenly Paibok was hit in the face with webbing. The webbing grew cold and brittle and shattered. The Power Skrull's eyes narrowed as he glared at the wallcrawling hero.

"Like you weren't going to kill us anyway?" Spider-Man joked. "Please it's always 'kill' or 'ice' or 'destroy' with you guys."

"Avengers Assemble!" Captain America yelled out as the group rushed at Paibok.

Wasp blasted Paibok inside his ears. With Paibok distracted by the pain, Thor, and Luke Cage hammered on him with their fists. Spider-Man used his strength and agility to hit the Power Skrull where Luke and Thor weren't. With Paibok's attention on them and his earache, Ms. Marvel flew behind The Power Skrull and blasted his unguarded back.

Paibok howled in pain. He let out a massive burst of electricity to drive off Thor and Luke Cage. Captain America's shield hit Paibok's jaw so hard even in its armed state there was a loud crack.

As soon as Captain America's shield was out of the wound, Mockingbird hit the same spot with her battle stave. Paibok's blood lust reached even more incredible heights as this ad hoc group was making him look like an embarrassment.

The team broke off their assault. Paibok charged for the archer. Hawkeye fired an arrow that didn't hit the Power Skrull. Paibok thought for a moment it was in fear that the archer missed.

It was then Paibok lost his footing as it was slippery grease arrow that Hawkeye fired. Paibok was once again introduced to the ground. The grease froze sold and Paibok staggered to his feet.

Suddenly a yellow blur flew at Paibok. Sentry drove his fist into Paibok's armored gut, and the sound of metal being crushed filled the air.

"I've had it with people messing with my head," Sentry snarled. Golden energy crackled around the enraged hero. Paibok feared he'd done the worst thing he could do to the Guardian of Good.

Sentry's next punch sent Paibok flying through the air and through a mountain of ice outside the Savage Land. The scream from Paibok made it clear that hurt a lot.

"Wow," Spiderman gasped. "He's super pissed."

"There's some hope for him yet," Ares said holding up the severed head of "Power Man". Luke Cage gave Ares a dirty look but the Greek God of War didn't care.

"You know it really isn't looking like any of the people on that star ship are who they say they are," Ronin commented as he looked at the "escapees" with distrust.

"I am Captain America," Steve Rogers said forcefully. "I was captured years ago and only now have we managed to escape."

"I say we just kill them all and get this over with," Ares mused. "Really it'd save us time and we could get back to New York City for the usual gathering of teams."

"I don't care what you think," Ronin snapped getting into Ares face. "We're the Avengers and I don't know if that means anything to you but that means we don't go around slaughtering people for any reason!"

"You have guts Clint Barton," Ares noted with an almost approving nod. "And no common sense. No wonder my brother considers you one of his friends."

"You two done yet?" Wolverine yelled as he fought off a raptor. A huge pack of them and other dinosaurs were coming. They were attracted by the smell of meat and blood the dead Skrulls were giving off. To them it was the all you can eat buffet.

Ares loaded his guns and opened fire the raptors. The gleeful expression on his face didn't sit well with Wasp or Captain America. Janet wondered what the hell Tony was thinking considering Ares to be an Avenger. Especially since he'd tried to kill them several times in the past. Perhaps Carol would know given Tony told her what his reasons for gathering them as the Mighty Avengers were. Though given the look Ms. Marvel gave Ares as she picked up a raptor and threw the small dinosaur at a T-Rex she might not know either.

Sentry smashed the skull of a T-Rex. A fire had been awakened inside of the gold clad hero. He was tired of having his mind messed with and being the weakest link in the Avengers when he should be the strongest.

Thor caused gale force winds and lightning to deal with the various dinosaurs coming at them. The savage creatures had enough smarts to get away from the devastating storm coming right at them.

'Show off,' Ares thought as he cut off a raptor's head with an adamantium claymore.

Invisible Woman forced the dinosaurs back with with her invisible force fields. An Iron Man in his classic armor blasted a T-Rex with his repulsors.

Even united the heroes that came to the Savage Land were guarded and careful in case what Ares said was true, and everyone on that crashed starship was a Skrull.

V-V-V

As Tony worked on his armor he heard the sounds of battle outside. There was an ominous crack not long before Spider-Woman entered the base.

"Tony," Spider-Woman stated calmly. "You are a Skrull."

"I'm a Skrull?" Iron Man asked sounded more confused and annoyed then anything.

"Yes you are," Spider-Woman said after shifting her body to a Skrullian form "One of our finest generals."

"Explain the whole mess that destroyed Force Works to when Onslaught attacked and the return of the heroes," Tony remarked. "Really I'd love to hear how that fits with your plan."

"I…." The Skrull Queen hesitated. Even she didn't know what the hell was going on when she read about that series of events. Of all the things she ever expected him to do asking about that mess was never even on the list.

"See being a Skrull would make that easy to explain," Tony said as he worked on one of his gauntlets. "A pat answer to deal with a total mess. But life is messy."

"You should be quaking in fear," Spider-Woman snarled. "A complete wreck! Not asking about nonsensical parts of your history!"

Tony rolled his eyes at her. This was her master plan to deal with him personally? How pathetic did she think he was? He knew he had been the butt of many jokes since the Civil War mess but honestly.

"Yeah some Skrull Queen taking nonsense should hurt me after all the other things that have happened to me," Tony said sarcastically. "Really was that best plan you could up with? Not that I can see how a Skrull Empire ever was forged given your track record."

Phoenix and Beast walked into Brain Child's lab. The two stood behind the Skrull Queen. A malevolent sneer was on the face of the Skrull Queen. Tony nearly rolled his eyes. The Skrulls seemed to love the X-Men's forms and powers. The War Skrulls when they attempted to conquer the Shi'ar Empire, the fact that one of them had been pretending to be Wolverine before ironically being slain by the real Wolverine.

"You are out numbered Stark," The Skrull Queen stated in a smug tone. "And He loves you."

Suddenly Iron Man let loose a barrage of repulsor fire and blew Pheonix's head off. He didn't want anything even a quarter as powerful as that running out. Yet it seemed so…easy.

"You really couldn't make a decent Primal Force of the Universe copy could you?" Iron Man noted as he pulled down his faceplate.

The Skrull Queen had a "deer in headlights" expression on her face at this turn of events. Iron Man decked her with a single punch. She dropped to the ground with all the grace of a sack of bricks.

Faster then the Skrull Beast could see, Iron Man turned and sent him flying out a hole in a wall and into a tree. There was a loud crack heard and a scream of pain. Tony smiled as they always underestimated how fast he could move in the armor.

Recalling what happened earlier Iron Man flew out and found Echo bandaging her left arm. She looked tense as she stared at Iron Man.

Tony lifted his faceplate. He knew Echo won't be able to understand him other wise. Plus a Skrull even with the need to chew the scenery like a bad B movie star won't expose their face to the former assassin.

"I had to deal with Spiderwoman…or whoever she really is," Tony said clearly. "I don't have any way on hand to prove I am a Skrull or not."

"That's more then she gave me," Echo grumbled as she tightened the bandages around her broken arm.

"We now have a means to deal with these Skrulls," Iron Man said with a bit of hope. "And did Daredevil ever tell you about the X-Men?"

"No he didn't," Echo replied. "I know Wolverine is a member of that team but that would be it."

"Well one of them is a time traveler and he wanted to help me for some reason. Remember when everyone on Earth turned pink for a little while? Well he's the one who gave me some technology."

"There are days I wonder if I should have told Ma...Daredevil to leave me alone or if I should have never become an Avenger," Echo stated as she shook her head."Given the outlandish events that far from what I am used to dealing with."

The Hood's gang, the Incredible Hulk and his forces, and the D'Sparyre and such were not something she had been trained for. She considered herself a street level hero and not the level of stuff like the Silver Surfer or the Abomination.

"And I didn't even tell you the back story of that X-Man," Iron Man commented. "Trust me that whole incident on turning everyone pink is tame compared to that."

"I really don't want to know," Echo replied.

Tony put down his faceplate and chuckled. The history of the various X-Teams and Cable himself were convoluted and could give someone a splitting head ache. And given what happened in that mess with the Invaders Echo was selling herself short as being Avengers material.

The two heroes entered Brainchild's laboratory and Tony finished up his device. Echo did her best to bandage and make a splint for her broken arm. The former assassin looked at the Skrull Queen and wondered how long she had been among the Avengers. And made Maya wonder if the Madame Hydra that 'Spider-Woman' freed was really a Skrull. It also explained why she got the two teams to work together to fix the temporal mess that the Invaders showing up caused.

Echo kicked the Skrull Queen in the head as the alien tried to get up. The shape shifter slammed into the ground hard.

"We need to find the others," Iron Man said in a firm tone. "Now we can find out who is a Skrull and who isn't."

Iron Man then picked up what looked like a pair of Skrullian hand cuffs and put them on the Skrull Queen. They would adapt to her powers and keep her from being able to shapeshift to escape them.

The two heroes then followed the sounds of battle to find the Avengers mopping up the last of the dinosaurs that stood to face them.

Iron Man turned on his device and all the Skrulls reverted to their natural forms. The only people left unchanged were Wolverine, Wasp, Ares, Wonder Man, Sentry, Ms. Marvel, Echo, Ronin and Iron Man.

Tony lifted his face plate and showed he was who he was, and the face plate of the classic armor of his being used was raised to show a Skrull.

Formerly disguised Skrulls had various reactions. Some looked completely shocked, others screamed they were the real deal and this was a trick, and some looked annoyed, and others showed exactly how many powers they really had and attacked.

"Captain America" snapped and charged at the Avengers. Ares gutted the Skrull with his claymore and then beheaded the faux hero. The God of War then eyed the shield of the fallen imposter.

"Clint I..." the Skrull Mockingbird begged.

"I knew it!" Ronin snapped looking at the imposter Mockingbird. "My wife is dead."

Suddenly the Skrull Thor spun his hammer. In a flash the Skrull Jewel, Skrull Mockingbird, Skrull Invisible Woman, and the faux Thor all vanished.

Iron Man pressed a button on his device and all the Skrulls changed shape. Now they were all cows.

"Don't you think this a bit much?" Clint Barton asked as he watched a Skrull in the tattered remains of Spider-Man's costume eat some grass.

"It worked well enough for Reed," Iron Man noted with a slight shrug. "They're docile, and won't be hurting anyone. What's wrong with it?"

A T-Rex walked by and ate the Skrull Queen in a single bite.

"That's why," Ronin said with a sigh.

"Hey I didn't kill them," Iron Man said with his hands up and palms open.

"We need to find a way out of here," Wasp stated.

"Sure let's go find a super villain base and hotwire a jet," Clint commented with an amused grin. "Given nearly everyone has a base down here we're sure to find something."

At the first base the Avengers explored they found something completely surprising. It was the Quintjet the New Warriors hijacked and managed to lose. It only took Iron Man a minute to purge it of any traces of the Skrull computer virus.

"Now it doesn't matter what side you were on in Civil War," Wasp said in a commanding tone. "Right now we are the Avengers. And we have a world to save."

"Yeah Avengers Assemble!" Clint yelled. "Now let's go kick some Skrulls off Earth."


	2. Chapter 2

Ruth Aldine was a mutant. Due to having the X-Factor gene she gained super powers. Her mutant powers included being able to see the future. Her codename as a member of the X-Men was Blindfold, and it was a fitting one as she wore a blindfold over her face. She currently was on the front lawn of the ruined Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. One day it might be rebuilt once again, but this wasn't that day.

Now Ruth had a headache. Something was causing the future to change. Her best guess was Cable given he'd given her some splitting headaches in the past when he completely changed the future with his actions. She shuttered in remembering her head feeling like it was slowly being ripped open in what she later learned was Cable putting things through a third path over a mutant named Randall Shire and the aliens controlling him and more. There was also this feeling of a being destiny bended to out in space. This was because of a being called Adam Warlock.

Suddenly Blindfold saw a gathering of heroes, and oddly the only X-Men team there was hers. And she then saw Skrulls invading the Earth with heroes around the world fighting them. And out in space Hercules leading a God Squad. With one of his allies Amatsu-Mikaboshi looking directly at her and laughing.

The laughs put chills down her spine and she foresaw things that made the current situation look like two five year olds fighting over a can of soda pop.

Blindfold shook her head. Her team had been assembled by the cyborg bigot Donald Pierce disguised as Cyclops. He had them hunt Sunspot, Cannonball, Magma and Moonstar by doping them into thinking they were a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

They uncovered Pierce's lies and beat him but at a great cost. Their lupine team member Wolf Cub was dead and Ruth could feel that Dust wasn't doing too well. It seemed like they might honestly be the last generation of X-Men as Pierce claimed they were at this rate.

"We aren't ready for this," Blindfold said seemingly to empty air. She was actually talking to her friend Alisa. The ebony skinned mutant was hovering invisible and intangible over a crushed pillar.

"Ready for what?" Rockslide asked with a confused expression on his granite grey face.

"The Skrulls are coming," Blindfold stated calmly.

"The Skrulls?" Ink asked as he rubbed his shaved smooth head. "Don't you need to fight the Skrulls and the Hulk to be considered a super hero?"

"Look," Rockslide said in a low deep growl. "I thought the same way with the Hulk and he beat us and every other X-Men team around. Even the freaking Juggernaut at full power was knocked around. He only left after finding out the Professor's life sucked so bad that killing him won't matter."

"Why?" Ink asked with a raised eyebrow. "You guys lived in a mansion with your own fleet of jets. That's a pretty sweet life to me."

"Because over there used to be a graveyard of all the dead," Rockslide snapped harshly. "It wasn't Sentinels, or Magneto, or even the Marauders that killed them. It was a bunch of bigots with rocket launchers killing them as they were leaving on buses!"

"And we need to dig two more graves," Blindfold said softly.

"Two? But Nick was the only one to die," Rockslide inquired sounding confused.

"Of course what would Skrulls do in this dump?" Ink asked as he waved his hand ruins. "I mean the subbasement is not in that good of shape."

Sunspot flew down next to the young X-Men. They took him back to his early days when he was an X-Man in training so long ago.

'Was I ever that young?' Sunspot thought to himself. He then shook his head.

"There's nothing here they'd want," Sunspot stated firmly. "However I'm sure they're in New York City causing trouble. And I can always call for a ride."

"Just as long as we don't get a ticket for double parking a jet," Ink commented. Everyone gave him an odd look.

"What?"

"I don't think I want to know," Cannonball muttered to himself.

V-V-V

New York City was in a state of disaster. It had only barely recovered from the rampage of the Hulk and his allies, a fight which pitted the Mighty Avengers against Ultron, and a horde of symbote covered dinosaurs. Now a fleet of Skrulls was attacking the city and swarming it. With an army of Super Skrulls at the vanguard to crush the city that was home to the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.

Yet they were not the only heroes in the city. Though for the New Warriors people were divided on if they were heroes, or villains, or just law breakers. It was something the Super Hero Registration Act made a murky grey.

However now that didn't matter to the average New Yorker as the team was there and fighting against the invading aliens. Right now the SHRA didn't mean anything, only heroics did.

"Blackwing take out that Sinister Six Skrull," Night Thrasher ordered as he hit an Iron Man armored Skrull in the face with an electric staff. It was petty but it felt extremely good to Donyell Taylor. He then kicked a Skrull with the powers of Firestar, Iceman, and Spiderman in the gut.

"Got it," Blackwing said as he blasted the Skrull, who turned into sand and the blast went through him. Then a massive burst of fire hit the Super Skrull and started to turn the sand into glass. The Skrull roared in agony as her silicone structure was forcibly changed.

Barnell punched through the Skrull with his fist and she shattered into a million pieces. His wife Tempest didn't have time to feel revolted at seeing someone shatter like White Queen had been as a Super Skrull with the powers of several New Mutants and Generation X members hit her with a telekinetic blow. The former mutant and mother of seven was knocked out of the sky and landed on a fire escape.

If Blackwing had been exposed to gamma rays he would have Hulked out at that moment. He focused his rage and grabbed the Skrull by the head and slammed him into the passenger side door of an Impala. All the other New Warriors were dead silent as they saw that.

The man formerly called Bandit leaped on top of a turned over SUV and missile drop kicked a Skrull dressed in a mix of Electra, Shadowcat and Psylocke's costumes. The ninja Skrull flipped off the ground to her feet.

The Skrull then turned invisible and Night Thrasher wondered why the ninja Skrull had the powers of the Invisible Woman as well. Donyell switched over to inferred sighting on his goggles and the Skrull stood out like a sore thumb. He pulled out from storage places hidden in his armor several bright red balls.

The balls filled with napalm gel exploded on contact and the female Skrull let out a scream of pure pain. Night Thrasher hit the invader in the arm with an obsidian escrima stick as hard as he could. There was a loud crunch and the Skrull vanished again.

"Behind you!" Phaser yelled out at the top of his lungs. Night Thrasher didn't do give any indication he heard silver and navy blue clad hero other than to roundhouse kick the Skrull ninja in the face. The Skrull looked only to be annoyed at the attack to the New Warrior's surprise given how well his previous attacks had hurt her.

Phaser and Skybolt blasted the ninja Skrull with Skybolt aiming for where Night Thrasher had injured her. They knocked the Super powered skrull in back but then the Skrull slammed them using her force field.

"He loves you," she gasped holding her wounded arm.

"I doubt that," Ripcord snarled as she webbed up the face of the Skrull and then axe kicked her in the face. The ninja Skrull stumbled before Wondra punched it into a wall as hard as she could. The Skrull slumped to the ground and stayed there.

Night Thrasher brought down his electro staff on a Skrull with a gem on his open chested shirt. The Skrull blocked it with his own quarter staff. He then fired an energy blast from his eyes at Night Thrasher. The blast sent Night Thrasher flying. He hit the ground with loud clank.

Renascence grabbed the Skrull with her tentacles and pumped it full of electricity. The Skrull sizzled and went limp. Night Thrasher got up and glared at the yellow and black garbed former mutant for a moment before backhanding a Skull as hard as he could.

"You're welcome," Sofia muttered darkly.

In the air Tempest was being chased by flying Super Skrulls. She couldn't get them off her tail as she fired heat and ice bursts at them. Blackwing flew into their formation and punched one to the ground. A purple armored Skrull was about to with a massive fist of water but Tempest froze it solid. Blackwing took down the Frightful Four Skrull with an energy blast.

"Thanks honey," Blackwing said to his wife Tempest. However Tempest was too busy to respond to her black armored husband as she battled an orange fur covered Skrull with massive shoulder pads and wearing a pair of goggles.

Decibel helped Tempest by hitting the Super Skrull with a sonic attack. The Skrull clutched his ears which left him open to Tempest hitting him with a fire ball. Skybolt hit the burning Skrull with an energy blast and the Skrull fell out of the sky.

"And that probably still would be less painful then letting your husband handle it," Jono Starsmore joked as he nailed an Avengers West Coast Skrull with a sonic attack from his hands.

Phaser fired a blast from his chest and shattered the Sinister Six Super Skrull as it tried to change itself back to sand. Decibel then made some noise. His screams sent Skrulls flying around. Wondra ran in punched the distracted Skrulls around.

"You know Night Thrasher when I was a member of the X-Men we had to deal with a group of Skrulls with our powers," Wondra said, "Called themselves War Skrulls."

"As interesting as your trip down memory lane is," Skybolt commented as blue armored hero blasted a New Fantastic Four Super Skrull with lethal force. "Does it really matter right now?"

Wondra made a face to Skybolt behind her mask. While she was expressing her annoyance, a massive hand hit Wondra and sent copper costumed wearing heroine flying into the side of a building. Jubilee groaned in pain.

"He loves you," A Skrull with the powers of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants said with an amused grin.

Before the Skrull could strike her again, a force field was projected over Jubilation Lee. Wondra and the Skrull were both surprised. In this confusion Phaser blasted the Brotherhood Skrull and knocked it out.

"So you guys are the New Warriors now?" Aegis asked with a slightly confused expression. The golden armor clad chosen hero of Athena didn't have a clue who any of those people were. The Night Thrasher couldn't be the original given he was dead. And even with so many super hero resurrections likely still worm chow.

"Who is this guy?" Ripcord asked with a confuse expression on the former X-Ranch employee's face.

"My name is Aegis and 'Night Thrasher' here has to be scraping the bottom of the barrel." Aegis commented as he used the force from the Brotherhood Super Skrull's punch to send several Skrull warriors to the ground. Aegis smiled as he'd been working on controlling the abilities his magical breastplate gave him.

"Well the other New Warriors are dead or became minions of Stark," Night Thrasher snapped.

Then a massive jolt of energy struck a Skrull that was a mix of Iron Man, Omega Red and Whiplash. It sent the Skrull flying through the air and into an open dumpster in a small back alley. They saw a guy their age in a black costume with lightning across it smile a cocky grin. His most noticeable features were that he had a streak of white in his raven black hair and a scar around his left eye.

"Make way for Striker!" he proudly proclaimed as he unleashed a massive bolt of lightning into what looked like an obsidian Thing with a hammer like Beta Ray Bill. The bolt of power knocked the armored Skrull around. Tempest swooped in with Decibel and Phaser right behind her.

"Let him have it," Phaser yelled out as he fired energy bolts into back of the Super Skrull. Decibel created a solid sound Hulk construct and had the imitation of the Green Goliath slam his massive fist into the gut of the hammer wielding Skrull. Tempest unleashed a massive ball of scorching fire right in the alien. There was nearly a sizzle as it hit the Skrull's flesh.

The New Warriors were wary of this new guy being a Skrull in disguise, even more so then the Aegis guy. Striker didn't let that bother him at all. He had a chance to get onto a super hero team and finally be able to become a marketable hero. His solo attempt made him wonder how Spider-Man, Daredevil and others found anything to fight.

Striker then grinned widely at Tempest. "You want to get in on the ground floor with the guy who'll be the next great hero? I'll be as big as Iron Man or Captain America."

The black and tan costume wearing Afro-Latino wife gave him a dirty look. "Married to Blackwing, and go bother Ripcord. She might be willing to put up with your ego. And still take your money to… "

"Not now!" Night Thrasher ordered as a Skrull with the powers of the Juggernaut, Thing and the Hulk attacked them.

"Oh boy," Aegis muttered as his forcefield was taken to the limits by the hammering of that Powerhouse Skrull. The cerulean bubble of energy was absorbing the powerful blows but sweat was flooding down Trey's face.

Wondra walked out of a smoking car and punched the Skrull where the kidneys would be on a human with all her enhanced might. It was effective enough to make the Skrull turn his head and grunt in pain. With that distraction Aegis sent all the force the alien had used as one massive blow and the alien warrior knocked down over a dozen of his fellow Super Skrulls as he rocketed through the air.

Then a giant Super Skrull tried to smash them all with his bus sized fist. However his aim was thrown off by webbing in the eye and the giant tripped over the wreckage of a car. Skybolt and Phaser blasted the giant while Renascence wrapped one of her tentacles around one of the giant's legs and pulled.

There was a thunderous crash as the giant hit the pavement. Striker blasted the Skrull in the head with his lightning bolts to make sure it was staying down.

"Hey guys," Spider-Man called out as he kicked an original X-Men Super Skrull in the face. "At least this beats defacing Avengers Tower. Seriously you guys going to order 100 pizzas and charge them to Iron Man next?"

"And you've done better?" Wondra remarked harshly. "The Avengers team you are with seems more content to sit on their butts then do anything about Registration."

"What are you talking about?" Spider-Man replied with audible confusion. "I quit the Avengers when I hung up my mask for the last few months."

A fresh wave of Super Skrulls shelved that discussion.

Suddenly a green and white blur ran through the ranks of the Skrulls and sent them flying. To the surprise of the Skrulls the Hulk leaped in and yelled "Hulk Smash!"

Then various trick arrows hit the Skrulls. And then everyone heard the infamous battle cry of "Avengers Assemble!"

Yet it wasn't the Mighty Avengers that showed up. It was the Young Avengers. The Hulk suddenly changed into Hulkling and grew claws. Teddy slashed a Freedom Force Super Skrull.

The multiarmed Skrull punched Hulkling in the face and used psychic webbing to cover Wiccan's mouth.

"Guess that means they don't care you're a Skrull." Patriot commented as he rained throwing stars at the Skrulls.

"Guess not." Hulkling admitted as he punched the Freedom Force Skrull in the face.

Hawkeye ordered "Less talking and more fighting."

She fired an explosive arrow at a Skrull in mix of the Avengers West Coast team's costume. The Skrull is then punched in the face repeatedly by fell to the ground in pain.

Vision blasted a Dark Force Skrull with a solar energy blast. Stature punched down a giant sized Masters of Evil Super Skrull.

"Shouldn't the Initiative be here already?" Hulkling yelled.

"They might be under attack." Vision commented as he turned diamond hard and an Iron Man Skrull broke his hand on Vision's chest.

"Typical," Spider-Man remarked as he dodged a blow from a Frightful Four Super Skrull. "When you need the help they're always busy. Then again they might try to arrest me again."

"Well at least we're here." Wondra commented as she punched the Skrull Spider-Man was fighting in the back. That gave Peter Parker a chance to hit the pained Skrull with a haymaker.

"Though the Avengers and Fantastic Four better be doing something." Patriot said as he slammed an All New All Different X-Men Skrull in the face with his shield. "Given that's what they do."

"Like that's a comfort." Night Thrasher commented as he kicked a Skrull in the gut.

"Just as long as it isn't that nut Osborn and his attack dogs the Thunderbolts." Phaser shivered. "As bad as Stark is that guy is even worse."

"Don't get me started on old crop rows," Spider-Man stated firmly. "It isn't pretty. And shows how insane they are to trust him with anything more important than cleaning prison toilets."

V-V-V

Norman Osborn was eating it up. He had lead the Thunderbolts to protect Washington DC from the front and so far was being rewarded by the media for it. With the shitstorm that was going to hit Tony Stark he could easily increase his power base. Now to lead the heroes against the aliens in New York City and he might even get Stark's job. And even if he didn't get that, he'd be seen as a hero to the world. Being seen as a hero of that level would open a lot of doors for him.

Norman's visions of power came crashing down when Sentry punched a Skrull ship out of the sky. The Guardian of Good looked like he had something to prove. He smashed through the Skrull ships over Washington like they were made of cardboard.

A Quintjet landed and the Avengers walked out of it. The press instantly turned their attention from Norman to Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Norman grinded his teeth in pure frustration as from the scattered reports the Avengers had been no shows. Something he intended to exploit to his advantage.

"Avengers take them down!" Iron Man ordered as he flew into the thick of things, repulsors blazing.

While Ms. Marvel supposedly was leader of the team, she knew that sometimes you just had to let Iron Man run things. And after the recent attack by the Skrulls that blew up the minihelicarrier and the mess her personal life had become Carol wasn't really sure she wanted to lead the Avengers right now. And it wasn't like this roster of Avengers lacked in people who had leaded the team.

Norman clenched his fist as he watched the Avengers go to town on the invading Skrulls. Wolverine wasn't holding back and was a meat grinder against the Skrull forces. The instant any Skrull said "He loves you" to Ms. Marvel she snarled and punched them as hard as she could.

Ray guns literally exploded in the hands of the Skrull forces. Tony doubted even with Extremis he could make Skrull starships fatally crash en mass but their personal weapons were another matter entirely. Many simply exploded in the hands of their users. The rest tossed them to the ground in fear. Iron Man then used his Extremis increased speed and reaction time to unleash a barrage on the confused shape shifting alien forces.

Ares picked up the fallen and still working weapons of the Skrulls and fired on them. To make things interesting he also used the shield he got off a Skrull copy of Captain America. It wasn't the real deal but it still was durable enough for the god of war's plans. When the shield cracked bones and skulls it was music to Ares ears.

Wasp gave Ares an annoyed look for a moment before punching a Skrull in the face. Given she was able to bend a steel bar at her current size; the Skrull went down with a splitting headache. She then blasted with all the powers of the various Spider Women.

The blow got the attention of the Spider Women Skrull which was a bad thing for her given Wolverine gutted the Skrull and cut its head off.

Ronin "accidentally" used a sonic arrow on a group of Skrulls close to Venom. He'd heard that Mac killed someone before joining the Thunderbolts because it would look good for his book deal. He also wondered when Scorpion went from being a super villain to a psycho killer.

Venom screamed in pain. Before the Skrulls could gang up on him, Ms. Marvel attacked and flung a Hulk Super Skrull dressed like the original had in World War Hulk at his fellow Super Skrulls. She looked at Mac and shook her head in pure disgust. The man before her is nothing like the man she fought once what felt like a long time ago.

Clint kept an eye out for Moonstone. He wondered what Karla was doing with this group of killers and nuts. And why the hell anyone thought Norman 'I throw women off bridges' Osborn could be trusted with any sort of position of power. The world he had returned to just confused the crap out of him at times.

Wonder Man punched a Lethal Legion Super Skrull as hard as he could. The Skrull tried to block the blow with his scythe but it shattered and Wonder Man's fist hit him in the gut. Simon then grabbed the back of the head of the alien and slammed him face first into the pavement.

The Skrulls soon found themselves removed from Washington DC by the Thunderbolts and the Avengers. As a last ditch measure the Skrulls unleashed something the Avengers didn't expect them to have.

His name was Titannus. He was a Skrull that had become more or less as unstoppable as the Incredible Hulk on a bad day. He let out a mindless howl and charged at the heroes. Ms. Marvel and Wolverine looked scared.

"Not him again," Wolverine said with his confidence shaken.

"Again?" Clint asked with an eyebrow raised under his mask. "When did this Hulk knock off show up?"

"Trust me Ronin you should be glad you never fought him before." Ms. Marvel said softly. Physical force never was the answer against Titannus. His heart had to be broken and his will live gone was what made him commit suicide the first time, and Crusader using a sliver of the Cosmic Cube to have him in a reality where Titannus had won before Doctor Strange dealt with the scientists controlling him was how they won the second time.

"How bad can it be?" Venom snarled. "Just because you couldn't defeat him."

"I'm sure I can kill it," Bullseye said in a cocky tone.

"Guys! We are in real trouble! Both times I've faced him, he trounced both teams!" Ms. Marvel said frantically. That worried Wonder Man since he didn't think anything could spook Carol as bad as Titannus was. A protective feeling swelled in his chest.

"Thunderbolts take down that Skrull!" Norman ordered loudly. "Let's show them who the real heroes are!"

Songbird and Radioactive Man had a bad feeling about this. That they were to be put into a meat grinder just to balm the Green Goblin's bruised ego. Songbird looked at Doctor Chen and they then looked at Moonstone to see what she would do. So far she hovered in place and was ready to attack.

Bullseye was the first to fall to Titannus. While the assassin had adamanium laced bones, the rest of his body was not as protected. While he had managed to get a knife into Titannus's eye the mindless goliath grabbed him with one meaty hand and slammed Bullseye into the ground. The force of the blow caused the ground to shake. If the master assassin wasn't dead he'd wish he was.

Titannus charged at the Thunderbolts and passed right through Moonstone. Karla was starting to devise how to get Clint to her side as she could see the writing on the wall. The Thunderbolts in one way or another were through after this fight.

Swordsman was next to fall. Titannus picks up the Strucker twin and uses him as a club to beat Venom with. There is a sickening crack as the Swordman's armored body slams into Venom's torso. Venom in a rage tries to eat Titannus's arm. However the Skrull grabs Venom's tongue and rips it off.

Titannus then rips off Venom's jaw and then punches straight through Venom's head. There is a flash of red as the symbote becomes like taffy. Titannus then started hammering relentlessly on Venom.

Sentry had enough and punched Titannus hard enough to knock the Skrull back.

"Enough." Sentry said in a stern and firm tone.

Ares slammed his shield into Titannus's face. He then stabbed the Skull with an adamantium knife. The super humanly strong Skrull back handed Ares and the God of War was bleeding from the mouth. Yet he had a feral smile on his face.

Penance hit Titannus with a burst of pure kinetic force. The Skrull was knocked back a few steps. Radioactive Man uses his powers to heat up the knife in Titannus and they heard the Skrull's flesh sizzle. Radioactive Man then punched Titannus in the face.

Ms. Marvel grabbed a downed power line for a boast of energy. Carol saw Wasp make a nonverbal gesture for her and Wonder Man to rush the Skrull while she blasted his inner ear. The two super strong Avengers rushed Titannus and didn't let up on hitting him. Songbird joined in their attack hitting Titannus in the knees with sonic energy.

Wasp flew into Titannus's inner ear and let loose with her wasp's stings at full power. The Skrull clutched his ear and howled in pain. Wasp was able to get out when Ares stabbed the Skrull with an adamantine claymore. Wasp turned and blasted Titannus in the eye before getting out the range of the Skrull's arms.

Norman then rushed Titannus with guns blazing and laughing like a maniac. Karla then regretted not giving Norman his meds. If only because if there was enough left of Norman to check for them it'd come up negative and they'd ask questions. Questions she'd rather not be asked.

Titannus ripped Norman in half like he was nothing and stomped on the halves with a massive foot. Before the Avengers or Thunderbolts could respond six gold flashes hit Titannus like the hammer of Thor. Sentry joined in with them and Titannus found himself being knocked around as they didn't let up in their assault.

Iron Man got an idea. He hit Titannus with a huge burst of electricity and stopped the heart of the giant. He crashed to the ground and they found out what the six blurs were. They were the now six members strong Nova Corps. One of them bound Titannus with adamantium bonds before restarting the warrior's heart.

"That's all it took?" Nova asked in shock. Rich Rider was there to fight Titannus both times and didn't expect high voltage to be what stopped the unstoppable Skrull.

The press swarmed Iron Man. Yet Tony Stark was a pro at this so he was able to answer their questions, or deflect them. And knew when to say "no comment".

After the press conference the dead and injured Thunderbolts were taken back to Thunderbolt Mountain. To the Avengers surprise Andrea Strucker was among them. How she came back from the dead was a mystery to them.

"Robbie," Rich inquired as he found his friend looking off into the distance around the Washington Monument. "You're still wearing that costume?"

"I've been getting better," Penance replied. "Though I'm not ready to be Speedball again. I can't be the fun guy I was."

"Robbie can I be frank with you?" Rich stated in a tone that made it clear he was going to be no matter what his friend said."I've been through three intergalactic wars. The first was between the Skrulls and the Nova Corps, the second was against Annihilus and his forces, and the last was against Ultron and the Phalanx. And I have some advice for you."

"To stop moping?" Penance asked.

"No," Nova replied looking as close to in the eye as he could. "To stop looking like you're emo and into well...what do you think the black leather with hooks says?"

"Squirrel Girl told me the same thing more or less," Penance admitted softly. "And the Stamford Incident was because Nitro was using MGH and not because of me."

"Sounds like she still cares about you," Nova said with a slight smile. "Sounds like you need all the people that you can get."

"I guess so," Penance shrugged. "And I completely blew her off ranting about how I needed my angst."

"Robbie you are getting professional help right?" The Human Rocket asked in a very concerned tone.

"Yeah Doc Samson," the former Speedball replied. "He's been a big help and I feel I've almost got this under some semblance of control."

"Good." Rich nodded. "I'd put my hand on your shoulder but it's kind of pointy."

"Man what happened to us?" Robbie inquired. "You sounding like a space general and me being emo?"

"Crazy shit and life," Rich shrugged. "I'm just surprised after what happened Namor hasn't made the Eastern Seaboard Namoritaland."

Robbie laughed softly. "You and me both."

Tony Stark found Songbird next to the Zeus, the Thunderbolt's Osborn tech ship. The ship being Osborn tech was a concession to the now late leader of the team, and it seemed a good one.

"Songbird," Iron Man spoke up. "I believe it is time for you to join the Avengers. Though it was probably a good thing you turned down membership last time."

That Songbird avoided the whole mess of Wanda going insane and destroying the team was dodging a huge bullet. That Captain Britain ,now called Lionheart, survived that mess intact was a huge miracle.

"But what about the Thunderbolts and Osborne?" Songbird asked softly.

"I've been rethinking things," Iron Man admitted. "One is the use of well...half the Thunderbolts team and Osborn himself. Though he's dead that doesn't matter. "

"Let's just hope he stays dead," Songbird nearly spat. Both knew that many times that seemed to be more surprising then anything in their line of work for someone to actually stay dead.

"It also doesn't help there are rumors of Osborn donning his Green Goblin costume before this mess," Tony commented referring to the mess four captured telepaths made.

"And the fact the Mandarin had done what he did?" Songbird asked sharply.

"The whole registration thing was supposed to fix things," Tony Stark sighed. "The Mandarin used it in his schemes, it didn't help Tigra at all, it seems to be causing as many problems as it solves."

"Hey Shellhead," Nova growled as he landed by the pair. "Anyone ever tell you about how a street gang found out the secret identities of the team? They cut off one of my brother's fingers and sent it to me. They killed Rage's grandmother and shot Firestar's dad. Seriously why didn't anyone mention that for being against registration?"

Behind his mask Tony Stark made a face. That definitely would have helped to tone down Registration a bit even if it was a government database and not to be public knowledge.

"We can work on fixing registration after this crisis," Iron Man stated firmly. "Right now we need to get back to New York City and regroup."

"I'll tell you when we get there if I want to be an Avenger or not," Songbird said as she wasn't sure if she wanted to be.

V-V-V

In the middle of the chaos no one noticed the upper levels of the Baxter Building return from the Negative Zone.

"Nothing like home sweet...home?" the Thing gasped as he looked out the window. Buildings were on fire and Ben could imagine super heroes out there fighting the Skrulls.

"Ben," Johnny Storm stated.

"Yeah Matchstick?" Ben Grimm replied.

"Break out the snack foods." Johnny commented as his eyes never left the view of the city. "I think we're going to have one of those super hero get togethers."

"Can't we have Stark hold it like he always does?" Thing grumbled. "And have him stuck with the food bills?"

"Ben I think Avengers Tower is on fire," Johnny replied as he looked off into the distance.

"Let's just hope everyone likes that trail mix Strecho has," Ben joked hoping to lighten the mood. From Johnny's still grim expression it didn't.


	3. Chapter 3

The jet the Young X-Men were riding in crashed into Central Park. Sunfire groaned. While being High Imperial of the Hellfire Club made losing a jet look like loosing some pocket change, he knew they were neck deep in Skrulls.

"Magma set up some traps," Cannonball ordered without a moment's hesitation. "Roberto I need you and Ink to get airborne and scout around our position."

"I can help." they heard someone say. It was a woman they didn't know about and wearing the same yellow and blue X-Men uniform as the others.

"Who is she?" Rockslide asked sharply. "I've never met her before in my life."

"I am Cipher," the newly appeared mutant stated. Only Blindspot and Graymalkin looked like they knew her.

The four former New Mutants stiffened at her use of a codename of their late friend. Sure code names got reused and taken by others but Doug seemed special that no one else used his. Having a mystery woman use it didn't sit well with them at all.

Blindfold was surprised her friend made herself visible. For he would be after her...yet at the moment the Skrulls were a bigger threat. She had seen they would be able to find Cipher and attack her. At least that is what the hazy vision Blindfold had. Since Cable had gotten involved everything was changing. For better or worse was what Blindfold wasn't sure of.

"I think we need to crack open a window," Ink quipped as he punched the side of the crashed jet. Rockslide and Sunspot then started to rip through the jet as well. The jet was designed to be able to take repulsor fire from a tank and keep on going.

"I shall assist as well," Graymalkin stated before hitting the plane with a mighty blow. The lavender grey skinned mutant struck the plane again managed to make a fist sized hole in it.

It didn't take long for them all to be freed from the downed jet. Ink and Sunspot took off and looked around. Sunspot took a moment to show Ink where some of the local meta human related buildings and land marks were.

"Here's where Avengers Mansion is," Sunspot said pointing out the ruins. "And over there is the New York Hellfire Club building."

"So the Hellfire Club's New York place is only a few blocks from Avengers mansion?" Ink said shocked. He thought they were a lot further apart in New York City.

"I know," Sunspot said with an amused look. "Surprises me too given how worlds apart those two buildings feel."

Then several Skrulls flew at the pair. Ink raised his hand and made several of the aliens feel sick with the ironic power of the biohazard symbol tattoo on his right palm. The Skrulls started vomiting and lost control of their flights. Several even slammed into each other in midair.

"Well that was easy," Ink remarked with a cocky grin. "No wonder they're a check mark in being a super hero."

Then a Skrull cross of Venom and Vulture flew at Ink. The Skrull licked his lips and looked like he wanted to take a bite out of the Mutate hero. However a solar energy blast from Sunspot knocked the hungry Skrull out of the air and into some trees.

"Come on. We got to help Sam and the others." Sunspot said in a tone that made it clear that wasn't a suggestion.

Ink wondered if the team really would want his help. None of them liked him at all, and helping Donald Pierce kidnap several of them for money didn't help matters. Eric then wondered if there would even be a world where he could spend that cash he got paid after this mess.

Down on the ground Graymalkin stayed in the shadows and shade as he fought Skrulls. Jonas wondered how his team could be so blase to fighting aliens from other worlds. He wasn't aware the sheer amount of aliens the X-teams had fought over the years. The Z'Nox, the Shi'ar, the Kree, the Skrulls, the Brood, and more.

Jonas dodged the attacks of a Skrull with daggers for hands. Then suddenly a fast moving blue and reddish brown figure leaped out of a tree and kicked the Skrull in the face. A blue energy shield suddenly appeared over the person's arm and they slammed it into the face of a very wide and flat Skrull.

Rockslide picked up the stunned Great Lakes Avengers Skrull and crushed it into a ball. He then threw it at a Skrull with the powers of the Original X-Men.

"Who are you?" Rockslide asked.

"I'm Bucky." Bucky said with a slight grin. "Though I'm not from this earth and it's a long story."

"She isn't a Skrull." Blindfold said softly. If anything she was far, far worse than any Super Skrull could be. Ruth was scared stiff seeing a threat thought dead and gone staring her in the face, and surrounding Rebecca Barnes. Heroes died the last time Onslaught walked the Earth.

"You sure?" Ink inquired as he slugged a Champions Skrull.

"Which of us can see the future?" Ruth commented as she got out of the way of an energy blast. Rockslide punched the Super Skrull that attacked Blindfold. It was covered in technology items. Techno's techno pack, the Living Laser's gauntlets, Stiltman's stilts and Mysterio's fish bowel looking helmet.

Rockslide punched through one of the Stilts and sent the Skrull crashing to the ground.

The ground then shook under the Skrulls. Magma concentrated and the Earth started to swallow up the alien invaders.

"Ok..." Bucky gasped seeing Amalla's power. "Who are you guys anyway?"

"We're the X-Men," Ink said proudly.

"I...never heard of you guys," Bucky admitted quietly.

"Seriously?" Rockslide asked as he hammered an X-Statix Skrull that was burrowing out back underground. "We only have 50 teams."

"He's joking," Cipher interjected. "Though it usually is seven or eight at a time with two or three main X-Men teams."

"With Wolverine on half of them," Ink mused thoughtfully. "Not sure when he sleeps."

"Wolverine doesn't sleep," Rockslide said recalling a meme as he punched a Skrull "He merely waits."

Dust sandblasted the invading Skrulls and suddenly felt a deep and burning pain. Like she was once again being turned into glass, and if she had a mouth she would have thrown up. She was forced to reform to her human form but was right in front of a Skrull in Iron Man armor. It smiled maliciously at her and was about to blow her head off with a triangular shield hit it in the back of the head.

"Is there a shield throwing convention that was being held that we weren't told about?" Moonstar asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not that I know of," Bucky said honestly. She then used a leg sweep on a Mob Boss Skrull and he fell over.

They then saw the man was an African American in a patriotic red, white and blue costume. He gave Bucky a sideways glance for a moment before hitting a super mutated Thing skrull with his adamantim shield as hard as he could.

Cannonball gave Sunspot, Moonstar and Magma nonverbal commands to be careful about the heroes that showed up. They might be real or they might be Skrulls. Sam was going to give them the benefit of the doubt; after all in New York City you couldn't rob a bank or swipe a purse without someone in long johns showing up, and alien invasions got everyone to get together.

Ink hit the Skrulls with a psi blast. Several dropped to the ground, and the other heroes knocked them out. Yet for every Skrull they took down, it seemed like five took their place.

Battlestar hit an Invaders Skrull with an axe kick. It looked more annoyed then hurt.

Then a red, white, and blue whirlwind appeared to be hitting the Super Skrulls. Bucky had an awe inspired expression. It was him. She had wanted to meet him since she had ended up on this Earth. It was Captain America.

James Barnes looked shocked as he saw the female Bucky fight an odd Super Skull. He had a blue cloak, a tiara on its forehead, no shirt, a white skull on his chest, Black Widow's bracelets on his arms, and a pair of red pants.

She clearly had been trained by the best as she dodged a knife hand thrust from the Super Skrull and punched him in the gut. She then knocked it off its feet with a sweep kick.

Captain America then shot a Skrull coming up behind her in the face. The alien dropped to the ground dead.

"Whoa," Rockslide gasped as he was dealing with a Gamma Corps Skrull.

"Act surprised later, Cannonball ordered firmly. "We got Skrulls to deal with now!"

"We need to get to the Baxter Building," Captain America stated in a tone that got everyone to listen to him. "It is the only super hero base still usable and big enough for everyone that will show up."

V-V-V

The Avengers and remains of the Thunderbolts watched as the Nova Corps cleaned the Skrulls out of their way. The Robbie was surprised to see how much Nova had changed. He then remembered even before he became a New Warrior his friend had fought in a war against the Skrulls. It was something Rich never down played but also never really spoke of to anyone. Vance aka Justice in his super hero geekary and knowledge of all things super powered was the only reason the former Speedball even knew of that.

Then and there Robbie Baldwin admitted as bad as he had it, his friend Rich had been through worse. Suddenly the barbs and spikes on the Penance costume vanished and it looked like he was wearing black spandex instead of red and black leather.

"It's awhile since I've managed to change my costume my force of will," Penance admitted as he saw the stunned expressions on everyone's faces.

"Well at least it's better than your last one," Ronin quipped.

"You're one to talk," Wonder Man interjected.

"Hey which of us wore a green costume?" Clint remarked without any real heat. "You looked like Christmas Man in red and green."

Wasp smiled. It had been a long time since the team was relaxed enough for this sort of gentle ribbing. She then recalled it had been since Clint was gone that the team became unable to do that.

Tony Stark worked on adding his Skrull detector to his armor. Extremis made it easy to add it to his armor. Stark just hoped Lyja was sitting out this conflict. He really didn't want to have the Avengers beat the crap out of her given that would make Johnny Storm whine. And that was one of the most annoying things on Earth.

"You think Hank is alright?" Janet asked sounding concerned.

"I won't be surprised if he was in the middle of it," Tony replied honestly.

"Though at this rate I won't be surprised if he called himself Wasp," Ares remarked with a dark smile.

"That's not funny," Clint growled at the Greek God of War.

"I just can't believe Spider-Woman was a Skrull," Wasp said trying to change the subject before blood was shed.

"What I can't believe is how she fooled Wolverine," Iron Man commented. "He's the one that knew Jessica Drew. The rest of us might have helped her once or twice and seen her at some of those cosmic events but that was it."

Logan was strangely silent at that comment.

"Not like it matters," Ares said with an evil smirk. "Now that she was eaten by a T-Rex and is very dead."

"You people will never let that go will you?" Tony said in mock annoyance.

"I'm sure Ben will love to hear that," Clint said with a smile. "Like that story were a tank shot the Hulk in the groin."

"That is not funny," Janet muttered.

Then they heard Ms. Marvel gasp. They stopped their conversation and looked forward. They all saw Avengers Towers was in flames. The Skrulls were in the process of trying to break off Sentry's Watchtower that was attached the Avenger's base.

"And I just got the place fixed from when the Hulk smashed it," Iron Man grumbled as Sentry and the Nova Corps attacked the Skrulls.

"So Baxter Building?" Wonder Man asked.

"I just hope my apartment is ok," Carol said. The Skrulls seemed to enjoy destroying everything she lived in. Such as the Minicarrier shortly before this mess.

"Glad you have your priorities straight," Moonstone commented. Mrs. Marvel glared at Moonstone.

"Karla," Clint sighed.

"Are we sure he's not a Skrull?" Karla asked looking at Ronin.

"Completely sure," Iron Man replied without hesitation.

"And you never make mistakes," Moonstone said sarcastically.

"Clint is there a reason you believed in this woman beyond thinking she's attractive?" Tony asked with Moonstone looking extremely annoyed.

"I still ask myself that question," Songbird mused.

"The biggest clear spot is...Avengers Mansion," Wolverine said from the co-pilot chair.

Everyone who had been a long time Avenger winced at that. It was a sight filled with ghosts and pain. And Clint Barton wondered if someone made fun of his death. He wouldn't put it past Deadpool to make a wise crack or two about it.

As the Avengers landed around the ruins of Avengers Mansion they saw Yellowjacket, She-Thing, Mimic, and Paladin. Iron Man got suspicious as their costumes looked way to fresh for the madness that NYC was. In fact they looked like they'd gotten their costumes pressed and just put them on. Wasp gave Tony a slight nod as she noticed the same thing.

Iron Man was the first one out of the quintjet and asked "So where is everyone else?"

"Busy," Yellowjacket stated firmly. "The Skrulls are attacking every major city and even struck Camp Hammond."

"So what are you doing here instead of leading them?" Wasp said sounding extremely annoyed as she flew out of the quintjet.

"At least he wasn't found with Tigra this time," Moonstone commented in her usual snide way as she walked through the jet.

Criti Noll looked at Wasp with annoyance. The exwife of Hank Pym had turned down his experiments on her or was busy with super hero matters. Without them the Skrulls couldn't turn her into a living bomb. Not that they couldn't kill her, just that they couldn't use her to destroy a ton of other heroes at once.

"We need to test you," Iron Man said before turning on his device. And in a flash the four "heroes" were shown to be the Skrulls they were. Ares instantly opened fire on them with an M-16. It was a three round burst but the bullets were a kind that went through body armor and exploded violently in flesh.

"This isn't possible." the Super Skrull with the powers of She-Thing, She-Hulk, Crystal, Medusa and Invisible Woman gasped.

"Yes it is," Wolverine remarked as he cut into her with his claws. Ms. Marvel punched the Paladin Skrull through the ruins of the Mansion. Wonder Man flew after him and hit the Skrull with a worn support beam repeatedly.

Echo roundhouse kicked the Mimic Skrull in the face. The Super Skrull with X-Men powers turned one of his arms into ice and tried to vaporize Echo with his optic blasts. However the former assassin rolled out of the way, having learned from her last battle with an X-Men Super Skrull. A blast of radiation from Radioactive Man slammed into him. The next thing the Skrull knew was a hammer made of sonic energy dropping on his head and sending him face first into the ground.

The Paladin Skrull found himself being hammered with kinetic energy. Criti Noll snarled. He needed real warriors for this. Those three were pathetic.

"Any last words?" Ares inquired with a cruel smile. "Besides your screams of pain of course."

"And where is Hank?" Wasp said in a commanding tone.

"You have no idea how pathetic Pym is" Criti Noll said "It's easy for me to...ahhh!"

The arrogant Super Skrull sizzled a bit from an electric arrow that hit him in the chest. Moonstone made a note to not bad mouth Pym in earshot of Clint. Karla then remembered when Pym had fallen the most that Hawkeye still believed him and helped him prove his innocence of a murder that Egghead framed him for.

"Pym is a close and personal friend of mine," Clint Barton snarled with a dark timber. "You taking his life ticks me off!"

"Pym and his size changing powers are child's play to my people," the faux Yellowjacket proclaimed. Ionic energy crackled as the Skrull took on costume traits of the Vision, Black Panther, Wonder Man, Quicksilver, Arache, Hercules and Wolverine.

"Jeez," Clint said as he looked the ungainly and elements thrown together costume. "Do all you new Super Skrulls have to such patchwork and ugly costumes? I mean come on you can get powers from nearly everyone but can't design a decent costume."

"That's rich coming a guy using some woman's old costume," Wolverine commented. Echo gave Logan an annoyed look since she let Clint use that costume after he helped rescue her.

"Yeah well I'm changing back to my old costume and codename after we beat this smuck's can," Hawkeye proclaimed. Inwardly he was glad they at least didn't bring up the toga costume he'd used at one point.

"It doesn't matter since you'll be dead!" Skrulljacket bellowed.

"Righttt," Clint said sarcastically. "You have any idea how people have said that?"

Skrulljacket came at Hawkeye with the speed of Quicksilver. However Sentry was faster and the Skrull walked into Sentry's fist. While Skrulljacket was knocked back by Iron Man who had hit him with his pulsars.

The Skrullian invader let out a massive howl of pain and he was then hit with a massive wave of kinetic force by Penance. Then Radioactive Man hit Criti Noll with a right cross. Wolverine took advantage of the Skrull seeing stars and slashed Skrulljacket with his claws.

Fast as lightning Skrulljacket turned his body diamond hard and punched Wolverine in the face. There was a thunderous crack as Skrulljacket's hand broke hitting Wolverine's admantium laced skull. Though Wolverine was still sent flying into the ruins of Avengers Mansion.

Sentry let loose a massive burst light right in Criti Noll's face. Then Criti Noll felt he was being hit with energy blasts from all sides. The Skrull screamed in pain.

Then Criti Noll knew what being shot with a Desert Eagle felt like. Ares really liked that gun. The Greek God of War then slammed the shield he had gotten off a fake Captain America into the faux Yellowjacket's head.

A loud crack filled the air. Ares then fired his gun again to make sure Criti Noll was dead. Wasp and Clint looked at Iron Man and wondered why he let Ares on the team. Ms. Marvel understood it was to have the sort of power of Thor and Wolverine's attitude. Of course Carol doubted that Clint would have ever let Wolverine on the team. To be honest he was one of the few who helped out the West Coast team that weren't given reserve membership. Even Darkhawk got that for helping them once.

Wolverine slashed the Fantastic Four Super Skrull in her face. Then Clint hit the Skrull with a freeze arrow. Ice instantly formed over her and Ares punched the frozen Skrull and shattered her. Wasp didn't look happy about that.

Echo didn't like this. She was fighting for her life against super powered shape shifting aliens with a broken arm. She mused darkly even with both arms she was outclassed and unable to beat that Skrull that impersonated Daredevil. Maya was driven from her musing by a massive blast of ice. She then barely managed to avoid another optic blast from the X-Men Super Skrull. Still Echo managed to grab one of the Skrull's wings and yanked on it hard.

The Skrull screamed in pain. Moonstone stuck the X-Men Super Skrull in the back of the head with a hammer punch. The Skrull turned and got a photon blast to the face for his troubles.

Clint fired an electric arrow at the Paladin Super Skrull that was now made up of water. He sizzled and changed back to the normal Skrullian form. Wonder Man punched the Skrull as hard as he could and sent him flying through the air.

The Skrull was sent flying back to the ground as Nova returned.

"We need to get moving now!" Rich Rider yelled in a commanding tone that surprised everyone.

"You heard him," Wasp told the other heroes. "Let's move!"

Ms. Marvel and all the other fliers took off for the Baxter Building with the ground bound heroes not too far behind them. Ms. Marvel looked back for a moment and saw why Nova wanted them to get moving.

The Skrulls sent a whole battalion to the shattered remains of Avengers mansion. Iron Man using Extremist was able to access the still active computer core under the ruined townhouse and was able to get the remaining defenses working.

"We need to get rid of the Skrull fleet that's in orbit," Nova said "Worldmind said he had a plan to help deal with that but didn't tell me what it was."

The heroes soon arrived at the Baxter Building and found they weren't the only ones there.

There was a team of X-Men, the Young Avengers, and to Iron Man's annoyance the New Warriors. Then Tony noticed Bucky from Counter Earth was there as well among the solo heroes that had turned up. Tony felt they were scrapping the bottom of the barrel if the Young Allies had showed up but at the moment they needed all the help they could get.

"Where are the rest of the Young Allies?" Iron Man inquired. At the moment they needed all the help they could get and find out if the Skrulls had invaded Counter Earth as well as the regular Earth.

"The who?" Bucky asked clearly having no idea who he was talking about.

"Your allies on Counter Earth." Iron Man replied.

"Is that what you call my Earth?" Bucky asked sounding extremely confused.

"It is since Doctor Doom moved it from another dimension to the other side of the Sun."

"What?" Bucky said "I don't remember any of that. I remember ending up here after a battle with Onslaught a few weeks ago."

"Great," Tony muttered. "Yet another alternate reality."

"It's just like any other Tuesday around here," the Thing said with a bemused expression.

"Well at least she isn't another Summers family member," Ink joked. He got a few polite chuckles from various other heroes.

"Like we need his help," Night Thrasher snapped harshly. "It's Stark's fault we're in this mess!"

"Oh I'm so evil," Iron Man said with sarcasm flooding his words. "I only wanted to keep Gyrich or anyone else from getting the job. You know the ones that would make you wish it was me running it."

Iron Man then got into Night Thrasher's face. He actually saw himself flinch in Iron Man's gold faceplate. The New Warriors were seeing a side to their leader they never expected to see.

"Not like you have a clean record Night Thrasher or should I say Bandit?" Iron Man commented. "Oh yes I know exactly who you are Donyell Taylor."

"He's not Night Thrasher?" Jubilee asked shocked.

"He's definitely not Dwayne," Nova said adding his two cents.

"Great I was following a guy that used to date Gambit's ex-wife." Jubilee said with a straight face. Compared to some of the more insane things of the Summers clan or the X-Men had faced in general that was simple.

"I was trying to do what needed to be done," Night Thrasher growled.

"You were just trying to balm your wounded ego," Iron Man said shaking his head. "And ended up being nothing more than a pest to what I was doing. I mean really unregistered heroics and writing on Avengers Tower all you did."

"Does anyone here understand what they are talking about?" Graymalkin quietly asked Rockslide. The psionically held together rock mutant shrugged.

"Basically there was a disaster and then politics got out of control," Patriot told the lavender grey mutant. "Tell us what we had to do to be a hero instead of just doing what is right."

"Well if they didn't go in half cocked this won't have happened," Ms. Marvel growled at Patriot.

"Carol didn't you read what SHIELD reported? The CEO of Damage Control was using super villains to increase their profits. And gave Nitro the MGH he used to make explosion." Logan butted in.

"You mean my brother died because some CEO wanted to make more money?" Donyell snapped. "This whole registration bullshit and Captain America is dead over dollar bills?"

"And Hill didn't even want to bother looking into it," Logan snarled at Stark, with one of his fingers over the Unibeam generator.

"Well that left off the report," Tony remarked.

"Geez when this gets out I might be able to buy SHIELD's assets with the change in my sofa," Sunspot said half joking.

"So when I was busy in space fighting off Annihulus and then Ultron and the Phalanx you were using junk and getting a bunch of depowered mutants Bandit?" Nova commented trying to get the conversation back on track. Ms. Marvel got a bad feeling when Nova mentioned Ultron.

"Well we fought the Zodiac and Machine Smith," Tempest said getting into Nova's face. "So it wasn't like we were sitting around doing thing."

"I wouldn't admit to that Zodiac fight," Clint said with a wince. That showed exactly how poor the teamwork of the "New Warriors" was. He trained the Great Lakes Avengers better then the team had been by that point.

"You should go be with them Ink." Rockslide said "I mean they're all a bunch of fakes and losers like you."

"Rockslide," Cannonball said in a commanding tone.

"What their leader is a completely untrustworthy liar," Rockslide remarked. "Ink would feel right at home."

"Didn't the Avengers send Ultron into space?" Decibel__asked as he recalled what Nova said.

"Yeah they did," Cannonball mused in a thoughtful tone.

"WHAT?" Nova yelled with energy crackling around him.

"Calm down…." Ben Grimm stated firmly. "Or at least take peeling Stark out of his tin can outside."

"What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea what Ultron nearly did to Kree space?" Nova said. His hands glowed as he stared Iron Man in the eye.

"And this is after they set the Hulk into space." Hawkeye added in to the conversation. "Thanks a lot for that Tony."

"Outer Space is not your trash can," Nova snapped harshly at Iron Man. "Quit using it as a dumping ground for things you don't like."

"Yeah they got the Negative Zone for that," Moonstone smirked.

"You're not helping," Iron Man said with his hands raised.

"See that sort of stuff is what Starks thinks he can do because he's better then everyone," Night Thrasher snapped.

"We intended for the Hulk to end up on a peaceful planet." Tony explained. "It'd at least be a vacation for Bruce given he probably could fix the ship eventually. Something went wrong and we all know how that went. And don't throw stones at me Bandit. You're not perfect."

"What's the Hulk going to do on a paradise planet with no people on it?" Rockslide asked with straight face. "He'd get bored."

"Well he always wanted people to leave him alone," Sunspot commented.

"Well it didn't turn out well," Night Thrasher snarled.

"Can it kid," Wolverine snapped. "We got bigger things to worry about then your little ego."

"Right we got a fleet of Skrulls over head," Iron Man stated to get things back on what was important. "Anyone have any idea why this time?"

"Well someone told me it was for religious reasons." Hulkling interjected. He surprised everyone by speaking up at this gathering.

"So you're telling all of this destruction and death is because of a group of religious fanatics?" Iron Man inquired.

"Yeah" Hulkling replied with a slight nod.

"Things like this make me glad I'm an atheist," Iron Man muttered.

"Does Thor know that?" Rockslide quipped.

"I'm sure he does," Dani Moonstar said in her "school teacher' tone."And it isn't funny Santo."

Bucky was glad they weren't all turning to him for leadership. While Steve would know what to do, James had no idea. He was the new Captain America and while he felt confident in being Captain America, he wasn't ready to lead the Avengers. Plus the fact the Avengers team right now had enough members that had lead the team before on it that he wouldn't need to.

"Hey Bucky," Clint called out as he remembered something he'd said years ago. "I always thought you'd make a great Avenger."

Captain America smiled at that.

"So what is the plan?" Wiccan asked.

"It depends of Logan can get X-Force here." Tony stated. Wolverine's expression was one of complete shock. Similar expressions were on Cannonball and Sunspot's faces at there being a new version of that team running around without even being asked to join it.

"Seriously Logan I'm the head of SHIELD and you think wearing a black and grey version of you usual costume disguises your identity at all?"

"I told Slim it was a stupid idea," Logan grumbled.

"In any case is the rest of X-Force available?" Ms. Marvel asked.

"Probably since we don't use Stark Tech." Wolverine admitted.

"If Logan can get X-Force here then we get them to help us deal with the Skrull fleet in orbit." Iron Man said as a plan was starting to come together. "I have something in space that can help us."

"Excuse me." Cannonball said "There's an X-Force unit and I wasn't asked to be part of it?"

"Scott didn't want me to ask anyone of you but James to join it." Wolverine remarked. "And oddly Rahne managed to be part of it. Not sure what she was thinking to even want to go the places we've gone."

"Has Cyclops gone crazy?" Cannonball asked pointedly. "I mean does everyone forget when Pete Wisdom took several of us under his wing or that Rahne is the only New Mutant that wasn't trained by Cable?"

"Really?" Rockslide said "No one ever says anything about X-Force and Pete Wisdom."

"Well to be honest it was a very strange period of time for us," Cannonball admitted. "We all kind of wanted to put it all behind us."

"I only learned about some of that when I became head of SHIELD." Iron Man admitted. "You ran into some very stuff even I found strange. You were even thought dead until you attacked the X-Statix."

"Our legacy was not to be used for that." Cannonball sighed.

"Still can't believe you all lost," Ink mused. "I mean the stuff killed them, you guys would eat for breakfast."

"The Professor wanted us to go easy on them," Cannonball replied. "That they would help with human/mutant relations and having terrorists beat the shit out of them in public wouldn't help."

"That sure didn't work," Moonstar grumbled.

"Idiots like that were an endorsement for Registration," Iron Man remarked in a slightly snarky tone. "But enough on various versions of X-Force."

"Yeah we have a world to save," Clint Barton commented before giving Echo a look of concern.

"I am fine Clint," Maya stated before holding Ronin's hand with her own.

"Don't we have that one stuff that helps people be able to use limbs while the bones heal?" Johnny asked Iron Man. "I know you and Reed invented that but not sure where Reed put it."

For a moment Logan wondered what the Punisher was up to in this war. This sort of conflict only meant that Frank would have to break out the heavy artillery. Though Wolverine was sure that he could tell what Punisher had done afterwards.

V-V-V

The Hood charged into the warehouse he and his gang were using. It used to be an AIM base before the Young Avengers took them down. Parker Robbins wondered how the hell the Avengers or other heroes were to save the world when he easily beat the Avengers.

They made Tigra an Avenger and his gang easily beat and humbled her. Parker Robbins grinned as he remembered that. It was the first part in making him a big name in the criminal underworld. And after fighting the Avengers he knew how to beat the capes.

There was nothing that could get in his way. He could defeat all the heroes, he had an army of super villains at his command, and he magical powers. Life was looking good for him.

Then a window shattered and a burning backpack was thrown through the hole. The sprinklers came on and what came out wasn't water. The Hood screamed as he burned. The water line had been replaced with the gas line and the two bit thug saw that his dieing and burning gang was made up entirely of Skrulls.

Watching from a distance Frank Castle almost smiled. This time the villains weren't going to survive with just third degree burns and upset stomachs. The Punisher pushed a button and set off the explosives he'd set up around the warehouse. If the Skrulls and the Hood weren't dead then Frank wasn't sure if had anything on hand that could kill them.

V-V-V

After X-Force arrived the assembled heroes got a huge surprise as a huge force of Nova Centurions showed up. The Nova Corps surprised the hell out of the invading Skrulls and were able to rout the alien forces. One of the Novas landed on the roof of the Baxter Building next to several of the heroes.

"Hey bro like my new look?" the Nova Centurion asked Rich Rider.

Nova's jaw dropped as he saw his brother in a Nova Corps uniform.

"Robbie?" Rich gasped. "What the blue blazes are you thinking?"

"Trying to save the day like you." Robbie said with his arms crossed around his chest.

Rich then grabbed his brother by the front of his uniform and yelled "You think this is like super hero comics Robbie? Are you insane? We're about to go into a fight with the Skrulls and you want to know what newbie heroes like you are? They're worm food and don't even know it!"

Rich knew what the Skrulls could do. He'd fought a war with them as part of the Nova Corps. It was something he never wanted his brother exposed to. Why had Worldmind recruited Robbie for this?

"If I survive this," Rich grumbled to the other heroes. "I'm rebooting Worldmind with my foot."

"He's right," Rockslide said to Robbie Rider. "One of my friends got killed just before this. We barely had time to bury him before this mess."

"You guys. Keep my brother safe," Rich commanded like a general to the New Warriors, Bucky, Ink, and Aegis.

"I'm not a babysitter Nova," Night Thrasher snapped. He then found himself being held over the side of the Baxter Building by the throat.

"From I've heard Bandit you aren't worthy of wearing that suit and you're a crappy leader of the New Warriors. I heard Shellhead here once pulled rank and said as a founding member he could take charge. Well I'm the only founding New Warrior here and I'm telling them to make sure my brother survives this mess. Got a problem with that?"

"Well I'm here," Penance said taking off his helmet "And I back Rich on this."

"Does that make him Kid Nova then?" Ink asked with an amused expression.

"We can work out code names after this over," Iron Man interjected. "And we need all the help we can get Nova."

Nova tossed onto the ground like he was a sack of bricks. No member of the New Warriors even offered to help their leader to his feet.

"Right let's get to work," Rich Rider firmly stated.


	4. Chapter 4

A hidden group of heroes watched the gathering of heroes in New York City. They had currently been attacking the Skrulls in the west coast of the United States but it felt like they weren't doing enough. They that were putting a small bandage on a massive gunshot wound.

"Think we should show up for that shindig?" a talking gorilla asked.

"We're supposed to be dead Ken," a young oriental man replied. "We're trying to keep under the radar. And showing up at that gathering would ruin that."

"Well we could just say we got better Jimmy," Ken Hale said with a look of amusement. "The X-Men have been using that for years."

"Years I don't remember." Jimmy Woo admitted.

"The one in blue and gold," a regal blonde woman spoke up. "He used to be a suitor of my daughter I believe."

"Yeah and sounds like while things went crazy on Earth, in outer space everything went completely insane," Ken remarked. "And the Avengers caused at one of those events by dumping Ultron in outer space."

"And the fools and idiots of New York City nearly killed a later suitor of hers," Namora commented. "The one that tries to honor Jim Hammond."

"We better track down Jim Hammond's remains." Jimmy Woo commanded. "Word is that someone is after them. And we might even gain information on the V Battalion."

"Do they even know of us?" a head turning red head asked.

"Not that I know of Venus," Jimmy admitted. "But you can never be sure with groups like that."

"My cousin turned down being a part of that group for a reason," Namora said.

"Should have remembered that when he worked with Stark and his secret group," Ken commented "Just hope we don't mess up as badly."

"It is something to avoid," a man in a full body suit and wearing a clear sphere over his face stated.

"I hope we can do so Robert," Namora said softly.

"Sure was a pain to find out why the Hulk and the Gamma Corps wanted them dead." Ken muttered.

A silver robot saw Wolverine at the gathering of heroes and its right fist clenched. Oh yes the Living Robot remembered Logan. And the machine member of the team wanted to repay being blown up by the long time X-Man.

"Hey how are they supposed to get into outer space?" Ken asked. "Or at least get that many of them into space."

"Ever wonder how they got the Flying Dragon space stations into orbit?" Jimmy asked with a slight smile.

V-V-V

Reed Richards appeared to be in horrific pain. His body stretched like taffy and the Skrulls tormenting. That the whole invasion was his fault. Yet Mr. Fantastic knew this to not be true. This was merely the latest and most planned invasion of the Skrulls so far.

Doctor Strange confided to Reed that there had been a whole generation of heroes lost as they fought off a Skrull battle fleet. He and the Watcher had seen their fall. Reed wondered if there were heroes of that lost generation left. Mr. Fantastic hoped his generation of heroes won't end up gone saving the world from this.

Reed felt T'Challa was right. The Illuminati as Stark had referred to them was a bad idea. They arrogantly tried to force the Skrulls to stay away from the Earth only to give those shape shifting aliens the tools for their plans of conquest. Their current plan was one they had in place before Galactus ate their throne world which made the War Skrulls the X-Men encountered and Paibok the Power Skrull merely prototypes of the Super Skrull armies currently attacking the Earth.

And the less said about what happened with the Hulk the better. That entire plan was a disaster.

Reed was sure this was the mess with the Skrulls that the future Fantastic Four they had encountered talked about. Given how it didn't seem to be anything major to them Reed was sure the heroes would win in the end. That however didn't make him cocky. After all he or Sue or any of his friends could die and end up resurrected years later.

He was driven from his muses by a green haired woman who was trying to fight off a horde of Skrulls. If he recalled correctly, and he was sure he was, she was Agent Brand of SWORD. Suddenly a shadowy figure appeared and sent the Skrulls flying around the room.

"Who are you?" Agent Brand asked in a controlled tone. She had no idea who or what this person was.

"Dusk." The living shadow stated.

"The heroes must have gathered," Brand commented, still having no idea who this woman was. "Given every time there's a major event everyone comes out of the wood work."

"Last I had seen of her involved the Contest of Champions the Badoon and Brood did," Mr. Fantastic said as he was freed.

"That was...a while ago," Brand recalled. "But a Skrull invasion always has brought everyone together."

"Who sent you?" Reed asked Dusk.

"Fury," Dusk said and she teleported them off the Skrull ship. Unknown to them the holy book of the Skrulls burst into flames as their "god" ,really a Skrullian Eternal, got a massive spine driven through him. Even in their holy texts that was a signal of the end for this Skrullian religious sect.

V-V-V

Iron Man looked over the assembled space ships in the Baxter Building. There was a Skrull ship called the Stealth Hawk that the Fantastic Four had taken years ago, an entirely new space ship Reed had created, and a half completed Quintjet Reed had gotten his hands on and had improved. Tony wondered if Reed let him make more of updated Quintjet. It looked pretty like a solid update of the jet and Stark knew he'd be having way more time for the Avengers.

He was Director of SHIELD and barely holding onto it. With this mess and his technology being messed up he was sure he'd be fired. Of course given how thin of ice he had been on he knew that it'd have taken one major or even minor incident for him to be thrown out.

Tony then remembered he'd used SHIELD funds to help rebuild Stark Tower. Though given the building was likely gutted by fire and Skrulls it probably was for the best that SHIELD could have it. Which left him wondering what to use for a base for the Avengers, as he doubted they'd let him take one of the Iron Man colored helicarriers as part of his severance package.

"You want to know how many people you killed?" Nova asked sounding furious. "Seriously what the hell where you thinking dumping Ultron in space?"

"Well at the time he was using my armor while I was in to look like a nude version of Janet." Tony admitted. "We figured Ultron had lost his mind and would end up another piece of space debris. We had no idea he'd team up with the Phalanx."

"And this is after your last attempt to dump your problems in space backfired," Nova growled. "I know in that case you intended for the Hulk to find a peaceful planet but seriously it took both Warlocks and a lot of help to stop Ultron."

Tony wondered if Adam Warlock and the technoanarcy Warlock had ever met before that. He doubted it but that didn't mean it was impossible.

"Of course maybe if you stopped doing stupid shit you'd have a better idea of what is going on in outer space," Nova said "Like a batshit insane Summers brother ruling the Shi'ar Empire. I know that guy is going to be trouble."

"Are you done?" Tony asked sounding a bit bored. "Look I'm not perfect nor do I pretend to be. We had no idea Ultron would be able to recover and become an even bigger threat so quickly."

"And I'm sure the Kree will think you tried to kill them all when they find out you and the Avengers send Ultron into space," Rich Rider spat. "I mean they're still pissed over you guys tried to kill the Supreme Intelligence."

Tony knew saying "A time traveler made me do it" won't get him out of that mess. And he didn't have that excuse for what they did with Ultron. Though frankly Tony had thought it was Alkhema trying to ruin Ultron's reputation. The simple or copied plans and female appearance made sense that way. Of course now it seemed that the whole thing might have been a plan by Ultron to be sent into space.

"Yet you brought up my playing being a founding member to get my way so you could as well," Tony noted.

"I worry about my brother," Rich admitted quietly. "I think he's insane to want to be a super hero. I mean we both know this job it's as glamorous or as cool as they make it out to be in comic books."

"Tell me. Have you seen Captain Marvel in space recently?" Tony asked

"He's dead," Rich said with a confused expression. Iron Man had to know that. "I saw his daughter Phyla in the last crisis but Mar-Vell seems to be one of the few staying dead."

"A Skrull has taken his appearance and powers," Tony explained and it was like a light bulb appeared over Nova's head. "He was last seen attacking the Thunderbolts but backed out. He also seems to think he is Captain Marvel."

"After meeting the Thunderbolts I can't blame him for fighting them. They crippled, maimed and fought people whose only crime was helping people Tony. What the hell is anyone thinking where you have murderers and nutcases as public heroes while those that want to help are being attacked?" Nova growled.

"I thought I had them under control," Tony sighed. "But recent events have made me think I had less control over things then I imagined."

"Yeah I know how that feels." Rich admitted."At this point I won't be surprised if Worldmind tried to get Firelord and Airwalker to rejoin the Corps."

"Are you two done?" Logan said as he walked out from behind the Stealth Hawk.

"Yeah," Nova said "Though not sure how we're going to attack the Skrulls with just three ships."

"Well your team up partner Emma Frost has made a few ships for us." Logan remarked as he looked at Iron Man.

"Team up?" Nova asked. Then he got the reference.

"And she didn't turn your brains to jello for that crack?" Tony commented.

"Professor's stuff beats hers any day," Logan grinned as he tapped his head.

"So now we have to find the ships, get into space and beat down some Skrulls." Nova said "And hope Worldmind's 'hey you want super powers? Just come here' legion of Nova Corps members don't get themselves killed."

"Good luck with that." Tony said "Though one thing bothers me. There isn't any sign of the Hulk. The usual one or the red one."

"A red Hulk?" Nova asked "I heard from Vance he used to be grey but didn't know they were getting new colors."

"He's a pain in the ass." Tony said as he recalled the Red Hulk mess.

V-V-V

Noh-Var stared at the Red Hulk and Fastforward and felt he had hit rock bottom. The three had encountered each other in the middle of the assault by the Skrulls. Noh-Var had been driven from the Cube by them and as Kree put him just behind Earth's metahumans. Noh shook his head. In his dimension the Skrulls had been dealt with a long time ago.

Now he was in the middle of the American Southwest fighting for his life. Noh-Var and Rulk didn't trust each other but the help to deal with the Super Skrulls was needed. Noh thought Fastforward was one of those save the day nice guy heroes and he hated those. But he needed the help to stay alive no matter how much it galled him.

Noh-Var was driven from his musings by an X-Factor Super Skrull. It was super fast, and every punch that managed hit it made it bigger and more of it. The Skrull was getting bigger and bigger and laughed at Noh-Var. That pissed the extra dimensional Kree off more than anything else.

"And you claimed in a year you would makes this the new Kree Empire," the Skrull taunted. "You're no warrior. You're just a worthless whelp that uses cities to write profanity!"

Noh-Var managed to spit on him when he was gloating. Marvel Boy smirked and watched the Skrull assault his comrades. This was why the Skrulls were so easy beaten in his dimension. All kinds of powers and they were still easy to manipulate.

Red Hulk smirked as he traded blows with an ionic Super Skrull. Rulk slammed the Skrull into the ground. Energy crackled around the ionic Skrull as he managed to get back up.

"I'm not only stronger but I'm smarter then you," Red Hulk said as he grabbed the Ionic Skrull by the legs and used him as club to hit the other Skrulls with. A Great Lakes Avengers Skull was smashed by Red Hulk. Rulk snorted and wondered what else the Skrulls scrapped off at the bottom of the metahuman barrel. Maybe they had a Slingers Super Skrull or a Runaways Super Skrull.

Red Hulk then felt a little dizzy and felt a surge of anger as he remembered how the stupid Hulk managed to defeat him. It wasn't even one of the smarter Hulk personas that did it. It was the 'Hulk Smash' completely stupid version that did it. And that was what pissed him off the most.

Yet Red Hulk had a plan to make sure the Hulk wouldn't ever bother him again. It was something the Leader and Modok didn't have for him when he first fought the Hulk. They had finally gotten their hands on the nanotech Tony Stark had used to depower Jennifer Walters and improve on it. With it he'd claim to drain Banner of his gamma radiation and throw everyone off the trail of what he did.

And hope no one would wonder why he didn't do that the first time he battled the Hulk. It was the only part of that tactic that Red Hulk hoped they won't question. He then punched the head off Infinity Watch Super Skrull. The Skrull's head crashed into an Iron Man Skrull's chest.

"Did you have to do that?" Fastforward asked as he looked and sounded completely revolted.

"Yes I did," Red Hulk retorted.

Fastforward suddenly slammed into the ground as a female Skrull with the powers of the many loves of Cyclops forcefully routed around in his mind. She knew something was hidden in there and began to shatter the blocks hiding Fastforward's memories from her.

Then she screamed as the barriers suddenly shattered. Fastforward's head filled with memories and he wondered why he called himself Buried Alien. It was close to his real name but it was really far off. His name was Barry Allen.

"Thanks," the Flash said before punching the telepathic Skull repeatedly at high speeds. He then created tornadoes by moving his hands really fast. The Skrulls all got a bad feeling that this unknown hero knew what he was doing.

Noh-Varr and Red Hulk had no idea what happened but they were left in the dust as Barry Allen kicked Skrull ass.

As soon as the Flash was gone from the sight of the pair they saw the last thing they expected to see.

Deadpool riding in an antigravity bike made to look like a flying goat with a saddle and handle bars. Red Hulk had the intention of hiring Deadpool if he needed a mercenary for his plans, but had no idea why he was here.

Noh-Varr had no idea what in the name of the Supreme Intelligence this creature was. However he could tell it was dangerous and heavily armed with the primitive weapons of Earth. Which were a bigger problem to him then he liked given he lacked all his weapons and Plex.

"Hey guys the author wants you both dead," Deadpool said "Nothing personal guys but he thinks you Rulk here sucks and Noh-Varr is nowhere near as interesting as Bendis finds him."

Red Hulk was on his guard. He had no idea what Deadpool was babbling about but he knew that he couldn't underestimate Deadpool's skills as an assassin.

Deadpool leaped off the flying goat and opened fire on Noh-Varr with a pair of Desert Eagles. Marvel Boy dodged the carbonadium bullets. The Red Hulk grabbed Deadpool.

"I've killed the Abomination," Red Hulk proclaimed.

"He's been dead before," Deadpool noted with a slight shrug. "And please starting off killing an established villain to look bad ass just means in 10 years you'll be a joke. Look at Trevor Fitzroy, the Neo and all the other 90s X-foes but me!"

"Just shut up," Red Hulk snarled as he started to crush Deadpool. Wade pulled out a knife and stabbed Red Hulk in the arm with in.

"Ahhh!" Red Hulk yelled as he felt a burning sensation spread from the knife wound.

"You got a weakness to bladed weapons," Deadpool remarked with a wide smirk under his mask. "So I dipped my swords and knives in various snake venoms. They only bit me in the butt a few times but hey I got a healing factor and seeing Elvis turn into Captain Marvel Jr. and fight Donkey Kong was fun."

Red Hulk would have retorted but his vision was blurring and getting dizzy. He was also starting to feel numb and cold. He could taste bile in the back of his throat as well.

"It can't end like this!" Rulk yelled as he started to turn back to his normal form.

"Oh so that's who you are," Deadpool said before giving him a salute. "Bye."

He blew Red Hulk's brains out with one bullet from his Desert Eagle. If the poisons won't kill Red Hulk fast enough, his guns would. And it was a pity he couldn't think in yellow text boxes but it was text and the author didn't want to screw around with changing the color of the text.

Noh-Varr was running to get as far away from Deadpool as possible. He entered the white zone and was focused completely to put as much distance between him and the Merc with a Mouth as possible. If Noh-Varr had the higher thought available at the moment he'd wish he had all his weapons.

He then felt a bullet from a sniper rifle fly through the air. He barely managed to dodge the bullet. From the size of the shell and the explosion when it the desert ground Noh was sure it'd have blown him in half. The Kree from an alternate reality felt worried as he dodged another bullet.

It was then the land mines Wade set up started to go off. As insane as Deadpool was he knew that the best way to deal with speedsters was to herd them into a mine field and blow their legs off.

Noh-Varr howled in pain as one of his legs was completely trashed by a land mine. If he had time he'd probably be able to heal his leg but that was the one thing he didn't have.

"Don't worry Noh," Wade commented as he punched the alternate reality Kree in the gut. "With a little luck you'll be resurrected in about five years. I mean I doubt if Kitty Pride will stay dead that long."

Wade then used a Mono-filiment wire to cut Noh-Varr's head off. He then stuffed a grenade into Marvel Boy's neck before pulling out the pin.

V-V-V

"So when did we go from a covert fighting team to a taxi service?" X-23 grumbled as they rode in an elevator.

X-Force got called by Wolverine to pick up a pair of Blackbirds that Emma Frost and Cyclops had hidden in the Massachusetts Academy. It was odd given the mission didn't involve any covert action or bloodshed.

Wolfsbane found it a great change of pace for the team. Especially compared to the nightmare their first mission was for her. The ting of the elevator was the only thing that ripped her from her darkening thoughts.

X-23 took point and exited first. She quickly gave an all clear sign.

"Because I still have the codes to get down here and no one else was available," James Proudstar stated. "And that Iron Man figured out who Logan was by his costume."

"Great so SHIELD knows who we are," Wolfsbane muttered as they went down a bright silver hallway toward the vehicle hanger.

"They are not the only one," they heard behind them. They turned and saw a sword wielding man in mostly white with a red shirt on under a white jacket. He also had what looked like a brown boxing helmet on. Warpath knew who he was very well. Wolfsbane looked surprised to see him.

X-23 extended her claws and attacked. The red and white clad man dodged her attacks and hit her with the flat of his swords. Laura snarled in annoyance and the mystery warrior smirked at her. X-23 was about to gut him when Warpath got between them.

"Shatterstar, X-23 enough," James said in a very casual tone. "We're both on the same side."

"I do wonder why you were the only X-Force member to be asked," Shatterstar mused. "While the rest of us were left out as Cannonball here otherwise."

"I'm sure Cyclops will get asked that a lot," John admitted. It was very odd to him for so many former X-Force members to not even be asked to be part of the team. Cable and in some cases Pete Wisdom had also trained the others in black ops.

They knew what they were doing for this kind of missions. Of course Wolverine in a grey and black version of his costume didn't help their covertness. Other than to help give whoever was tracking them a huge headache trying to figure out where Wolverine was at any time the super strong mutant mused with a slight grin.

"Well 'Star. I'm not sure how you found us but you're welcome to help us," James grinned. "We need all the help we can get and

"You sure he's not a Skrull?" Rahne asked.

"Why would any Skrull take Shatterstar's form and not kill us all?" Warpath asked her back. "Especially now."

Shatterstar then showed them a Skrull head wearing a version his red boxing helmet-like headgear. The pained expression on the Skrull's face made it clear that Shatterstar made the death extremely painful.

"I found him and killed him."

"Well that's one way deal with a Skrull," Warpath remarked with a grim smile.

X-Force kept a close eye on Shatterstar as they started up the Blackbirds. They had no way to prove Shatterstar was the real deal beyond killing him and even they considered that too extreme to do. All they could do is hope he was the real deal and watch him like a hawk.

Shatterstar didn't mind their caution at all. He honestly approved of it.

X-23 kept an especially close eye on Shatterstar as the Blackbird they were in made its way for New York City.

V-V-V

Barry Allen looked at himself in a mirror for a moment. He'd shaved his beard and was now dressed in his Flash costume. He also felt like himself for the first time in a long time. He also felt a bit disturbed at how Sentry was a warped reflection of Superman.

The man clearly needed help and Barry wasn't sure why Doctor Leonard Samson wasn't helping him. He sounded like just what Sentry needed to help deal with his issues. On his world they won't have let such a ticking time bomb be a hero without helping him. The League or Titans would have made sure of it.

Shaking himself from his thoughts he ran back to where his allies where and found them dead. Though they appeared to be killed by human weapons instead of alien ones. As he was a forensic scientist, he knew what bullet and stab wounds from katanas and slug throwing firearms looked like. He did the only thing he could. He quickly dug the pair graves and used rocks for simple tombstones.

After finishing that task Barry started running. There was nothing more he could do for those two, but he could help others. He raced for New York City. He knew that this city was where the most powerful heroic teams gathered. His friend Makkari had told him a bit about the Avengers and Fantastic Four when they traveled together.

In his mind's eye he could imagine seeing Titans Tower. That made him feel sad knowing what his death would do to Wally. He knew the young man was worthy of being the Flash and regretted not being able to tell him that before ending up in this universe.

The Fastest Man Alive raced through New York City and knocked around the Skrulls attacking people. The Skrulls were confused as they had listed pretty much every meta human by this point. A new speedster was setting back their plans. What other heroes could have slipped through the cracks?

And then several very slow moving speedsters came at the Flash. Barry wondered how they expected to beat him on quickness. They were nowhere near his league on that. Suddenly the ground under him melted. Barry skidded to a halt into a turned over delivery truck. Maple syrup covered him.

A Squadron Sinister Super Skrull, an Invaders Super Skrull, a Cap's Kooky Quartet Super Skrull and a Thunderbolts Super Skrull ran at their top speeds of 75 to 145 miles per hour at him. Flash was surprised when one of the Skrulls fired arrows at him. He quickly dodged the exploding arrows and punched the World War Hulk Skull that was trying to sneak up behind him.

A caped figure attacked the Cap's Kooky Quartet Skrull. Flash only saw him out of the corner of his eye as the Thunderbolts Skrull hit with an ionicly enhanced punch. Barry was sent flying by the punch but quickly recovered and hit the Skrull in the face at high speed.

Then there was the sound of a sword cutting into a flesh and screaming in an alien tongue. Barry looked and saw a woman in an interesting costume. It looked like she had a metal bra as part of her uniform. Green blood dripped off her sword and the World War Hulk Skrull was clutching his chest.

Barry then got a good look at the other person helping him. He wore a blue and gold costume with a red cape. For some reason he reminded the Flash of Batman. The unknown hero kicked the World War Hulk Skrull in the face. The force of the blow knocked the wounded Skrull back several steps.

The Invaders Skrull threw a shield at Barry and he raised an eyebrow. The shield also passed harmlessly through him. Then the Flash beat on the Skrull while running in circles around the alien at high speeds.

The Flash then helped out the blue and gold hero against the WWH Skrull. He hammered the knees on the super strong Skrull. Soon the Skrull fell over and hit the ground with a loud thud. Flash then hit as fast as he could in the face.

"I'm the Flash," Flash said to introduce himself.

"I'm Nighthawk and she's Valkyrie," Nighthawk replied while firing a laser at the Cap's Kooky Quartet Skrull. The Skrull barely managed to avoid being shot.

"You remind me of someone I used to know," Flash mused for a moment. "Grim and driven guy."

"Ummm...thanks?" Nighthawk said as he dodged an ice blast from the Thunderbolt Super Skrull.

"Think you're a captain of cold don't you?" Flash commented. The Thunderbolts Skrull snarled and he threw an energy baton at the Fastest Man Alive.

Barry dodged to the right at super speed. Valkyrie stabbed the Thunderbolts Super Skrull with Dragonfang while his attention was turned from her. The blade went through the the Skrull and he coughed up blood.

"Less talk, more action," Valkyrie forcefully stated.

"I find the banter helps get them off guard." Flash said as he dodged the Squadron Sinister Super Skrull.

The heroes then had a massive shadow loom over them. Nighthawk and Valkyrie gasped as they saw a massive Skrull in the garb of Galactus. Flash had a feeling whoever this guy was supposed to have the powers of wasn't good.

Energy crackled around the Galactus Skrull. Then Atlas punched the massive warrior. Nighthawk looked relieved to see Erik. The former Thunderbolt hit Galactus again in the gut as hard as he could. He laughed. Erik and the others had a bad feeling this guy could use the Power Cosmic, or something close enough.

The Galactus Skrull blasted Atlas and sent him flying into an office building. Glass went flying everywhere. Barry moved really fast to make a tornado to keep all the shards of glass from falling on them.

The Skrull then tried to stomp Nighthawk and Valkyrie flat. Before his foot could come down on them, an uru hammer went through the Skrull. Thunder and lightning were heard and seen as the hammer returned to the hands of its owner. Suddenly a massive bolt of lightning struck the giant Skrull. Then came another and another until the Skrull was dead.

The Mighty Thor had returned to NYC and he was pissed. What the Skrulls feared had come to pass. They wanted Thor and the Asgardians to be kept busy and out of this. The Valkyrie that was in New York was a footnote to them. After all she wasn't even the real one.

Watching from a distance was a Skrull born to the name of Khn'nr but now was in all ways that counted to him Captain Mar-Vell. Next to him was the hero Crusader. They were both Skrulls who considered Earth to be their home now and wished to protect those that lived there. Also standing with them was Xavin, a Super Skrull in training.

"The end game begins," Captain Marvel sighed. "One way or another those heroes will decide the fate of this world."

Xavin hoped they could free the Runaways. The Skrulls had managed to capture them after coming back to the present. She only got out by feigning loyalty before Crusader and Captain Marvel saved her from a super powered firing squad.

Still deep down Xavin knew that Earth's Heroes would do their best. She just hoped when the three of them came to their aid that they won't be killed by the other heroes.

V-V-V

In the Raft there was one solitary figure standing over dead Skrulls and humans. This Super Skrull was able to copy of anyone and he even made his fellow Skrulls extremely scared. That he was so savage and even the Super Skrulls that felt they were made to be suicide weapons didn't want to go out ripped to shreds by Hydra Prime 001.

He lifted his head and looked out at New York City. Then he saw red as fellow Skrulls flew in and dropped gas grenades on him. And as he held his breath he found out that these absorbed through the skin and not through his lungs.

"Prepare him for transport," a Super Skrull with Cyclops's visor and Captain America's shield ordered. "And hurry!"


	5. Chapter 5

His name was unknown, even to him anymore. He was now known as Hydra Prime 001. The Skrulls had taken over many cells of Hydra as part of their plans. This however wasn't a new thing as a stranded Skrull had done this before calling himself the Sensational Hydra as part of his plans to destroy the United States and the legacy of Captain America.

The prototype for the Skrull power type of Hydra Prime had been one of the Black Widows. Yelena Belova to be exact. She was a test to see if an organic being could have the powers of the Super Adaptiod. Even for all their knowledge on metahumans and agents they barely knew of Mimic and couldn't find him. It also didn't matter to them because they could easily empower a Skrull with the powers of the original X-Men now.

It took several telepathic Skrulls and a few of the Juggernaut, Hulk, Thing and Luke Cage Skrulls and World War Hulk Skrulls to keep Hydra Prime 001 sedated and move him. However Power Cosmic still sent several of them flying back as HP 001 used the power of the Silver Surfer. Soon the gases knocked out the rampaging Skrull again. The Skrulls looked relieved as they loaded HP 001 for transport.

Several Skrull sharpshooters were set up three miles away from the Baxter Building with sniper rifles for when they needed to take out Hydra Prime 001. The snipers all felt they were way to close. They wanted to be in orbit over the planet and bombard the hated Baxter Building.

The transport containing Hydra Prime 001 exploded as the savage Skrull awakened. His feral rage was expressed as he used Nitro's powers. He'd have preferred to rip them apart with his bare hands but wasn't sure if he'd have enough time before being taken down again.

He then saw the Baxter Building and rage filled him once more. It was because of them he had been changed and he was going to slaughter every living thing in that building!

Inside the Baxter Building several of the younger heroes heard and saw the explosion. They were in a meeting room that was set up for various nonstandard people. Which to be fair the Fantastic Four got a lot of those. Rockslide wondered if it was just him when he noticed a Skrull reform from the explosion and he looked feral, savage and completely pissed off.

Hydra Prime 001 quickly switched over to Archangel and started flying using his massive metal wings. He fired off a barrage of 'feathers' and shattered a window and flew into the Baxter Building. Inside HP 001 switched powers to Spider-Man and punched the nearest hero in the face. Not the best idea as Dust turned to sand and the punch went right through her. Yet Dust felt some of her arm painfully turn to glass and had some trouble keeping together.

Hydra Prime 001's spider sense went into overdrive as Ink hit him with a burst of radiation and Rockslide hit him with a hammer punch. Then Sunspot hit him with a blast of solar radiation. Hawkeye unloaded several arrows into HP 001's hide. Patriot hit HP 001 with his shield.

The enraged Skrull switched powers to Sabertooth and slashed Patriot. The Young Avenger bled cleanly from from the cuts so HP 001 didn't cut any of his internal organs. HP 001 then kicked him and knocked Patriot to the ground.

"Elijah!" Hawkeye yelled.

HP 001 then switched over to the Hulk and punched through Rockslide. Rockslide reacted by punching HP 001 in the face as hard as he could. Hydra Prime 001 changed to using Iceman's powers and ice started forming in the hole he made in Rockslide and through his body.

Ink hit Hydra Prime 001 with a telepathic attack. The Skrull changed to Deadpool's powers and blunted the attack. He then found himself hit with an electric arrow and ended up reverting to his base form. In desperation he turned into Cable and knocked out Hawkeye and Ink with wild bursts of telepathic power.

"This guy is starting to piss me off," Rockslide snarled. He then slammed HP 001 to the ground with one of his huge fists. The Skrull slammed into the ground and got to know the blue carpet intimately. Hydra Prime 001 snarled in rage.

HP 001 turned to Warpath for powers and shattered Rockslide by beating on him with his fists. He then took off and flew at Dust. She tried to turn to sand but instead felt like her internal organs were on fire and passed out from the pain.

The incredibly powerful Skrull was then hit by a green and white blur repeatedly at high speeds. Speed wailed on HP001 and suddenly he was flung across the room when Hydra Prime 001 used Hellion's powers.

He went through a wall and slammed into the Fantastic Four's massive flat screen TV set. It shattered on impact with a loud crash. Sunspot fired several solar energy blasts as fast as he could at HP 001. Hydra Prime 001 slammed Roberto into the ceiling of the conference room as hard as he could. HP 001 then suddenly slammed Sunspot into the floor as hard as he could.

Hydra Prime 001 walked into the hallway and left the heroes piled on the ground.

Hydra Prime 001 was suddenly picked up by a metal tentacle and slammed into the wall. Wondra came out of the wall behind HP 001 and punched him in the back of the head. Hydra Prime 001 switched his powers to Speedball's and unleashed a wave of kinetic force against the New Warriors. Most of them were knocked off their feet and into the walls of the Baxter Building.

Phaser deflected the wave of energy with his gauntlets and blasted HP 001. Hydra Prime 001 started to bounce off the walls to build up speed and kinetic power. Decibel screamed and Hydra Prime covered his ears.

Hydra Prime 001 changed his powers to those of Dazzler and absorbed the sound the gray skinned descendant of Apocalypse was emitting. He then blasted Jono Starsmore with a laser beam.

Wondra came out of a wall and hit HP 001 in the face with a right cross. She followed that up with a kick to the face. Then HP001 suddenly vomited and went to his knees.

"What the?" Phaser gasped.

"That would be me," Ink said as he managed to get out of the meeting room and into the hallway. His hand with the radiation symbol was held toward the Skrull.

Hydra Prime 001 changed his power set to Sienna Blaze's and absorbed the radiation Ink was giving off. The enraged Skrull then started to chuckle. It was an unsettling noise to come out of the deadly alien.

"That's not good," Ink shivered.

"No shit," Striker remarked as he blasted Hydra Prime with a bolt of lightning.

Penance hit Hydra Prime 001 with a wave of kinetic force. And he didn't let up on his attack until the Skrull was flying out the window and disappearing from sight.

There was a sudden smell of sulfur and Hydra Prime 001 was back and he looked even more enraged then before. He then let out a howl of rage like a wounded animal.

"Oh shit," Ink managed to get out before Hydra Prime turned massive and hairy. He slammed Ink into the ground with a sickening thud.

Hydra Prime's powers changed once more and now he had Ice Man's abilities. The hallway grew cold and massive amounts of ice flew at the heroes. Wondra went through the wall and into Johnny Storm's messy bedroom to avoid becoming a frozen mall rat. The other heroes scattered as best they could.

Then suddenly Hydra Prime 001 was hit with a sonic battering ram from Songbird. HP 001 slammed into the wall. Then HP 001 was hit in the chest with a kick from Atlas. Erik wished he could be taller than 10 feet tall but the hallways were made for the Thing, not someone like him. The ionic hero was glad to see his former team mates though.

Moonstone blasted HP001 with an energy blast while Ronin hit him with an explosive arrow. Hydra Prime switched his powers to Luke Cage's and hit Atlas in the face knocking the former Power Man back a set. Radioactive Man then sent the alien to the floor with a mighty blow.

Robbie shattered the ice encasing him and slammed Hydra Prime 001 with kinetic force. This knocked HP 001 around the hallway and into the living room. Atlas grew to 15 feet tall in the larger room and slammed Hydra Prime into the floor with a hammer punch.

Ronin then stabbed Hydra Prime with his sword. The Thunderbolts were a bit surprised seeing Clint use a sword. Especially Atlas given he was a bit out of the super hero loop having worked with an ill-fated Defenders team lead by Nighthawk as his only super hero work since registering.

Hydra Prime 001 took on the powers of Count Nefaria . With a mighty blow he sent Atlas flying into a wall and then blasted Penance with his laser vision. At super speed he decked Ronin and tried to punch through Moonstone, but she had gone intangible.

Radioactive Man blasted HP 001 and but it seemed to annoy Hydra Prime 001 as he flew through the blast and then hammered on Radioactive Man with him fists. Hydra Prime 001 looked almost amused and satisfied with the pile of fallen heroes.

Then Captain America's shield slammed into the back of HP 001's head. Hydra Prime 001 turned and was hit in the face with a punch from Ares. The powerful blow knocked the Skrull back a few steps and Ares smiled.

The Greek God of War pulled out an adamantium knife and stabbed Hydra Prime 001 in the leg with it. The Skrull screamed in pain and punched Ares through a few walls. He then tried to remove the knife from his leg.

As Hydra Prime 001 was shape shifting his veins and such so he won't bleed to death Wolverine attacked Hydra Prime 001 and slashed him repeatedly with his claws. Hydra Prime 001 screamed in pain. Soon it got a grip on Wolverine and threw him into the ground as hard as he could. There was an impression on the floor made by the sheer power and strength Hydra Prime 001 had.

A green arm went through Hydra Prime 001's chest and Vision turned his arm solid. HP 001 screamed and tried to get Vision out of him. He switched his powers to that of Vapor and turned into gas. Vision managed to keep from falling to the ground.

Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man flew into the living room. They saw the carnage and weren't happy. Speed got up and started running in a circle at high speed and created a funnel that sent HP 001 to the ceiling of the room. Hydra Prime 001 took on Ice Man's powers and covered the floor with a sheet of ice. Speed lost any traction and slammed into the light tan sofa that was in front of the remains of the TV set. And this sofa was designed so Ben Grimm could sit on it so it didn't even move an inch when Thomas Shepherd hit it at high speeds.

Wonder Man punched Hydra Prime 001 and sent the villain flying. Suddenly HP 001 changed his power set to that of Graviton. He floated to the ground and then picked up Wonder Man with his powers and slammed him into Wolverine and Ares.

With lightning speeds repulsor bolts hit Hydra Prime 001 and knocked back the Skrull. And into the room flew several Iron Men. Hydra Prime 001 took on the powers of Havok and blasted the Iron Men. Only the real one didn't get pulverized as it slammed against the wall. The hologram units Stark used were vaporized by the power of the attack. There was nothing left but scorch marks on the wall of his holographic generators.

Ms. Marvel was also hit with the blast and absorbed the energy of it and shattered Hydra Prime 001's nose with a single punch. HP 001 howled in pain.

Vision blasted Hydra Prime 001 with a solar energy blast while Iron Man let loose with his repulsors. HP 001 was knocked back and he took on the powers of the Thing, yet this was from a time Ben Grimm was even more mutated and even stronger than before.

His fist passed through the Vision and Iron Man barely dodged a punch that would have gone right through him. Sentry flew in and punched Hydra Prime 001 in the gut. He followed it up with an energy blast to the face that knocked the Skrull back several steps.

Sentry saw no reason to hold back and punched through Hydra Prime 001 with his next punch. He then hammered Hydra Prime 001 with a flurry of punches. Each one could have punched a hole through a tank.

"This is why we don't want to hold the get togethers here," the Human Torch remarked as he flew in and saw the living room was messed up. Sue was going to be unhappy at the scorch marks, the TV got smashed and that someone was bleeding on the sofa.

Reed was a genus but even he had trouble making something that got blood stains out of fabrics without ruining them. Though Johnny really wondered if his brother in law was really trying. He was busy finding new dimensions like one that was underneath even the Microverse.

"Well I get stuck with the catering bill every time," Tony commented sounding half joking.

"Is now the best moment for you to be discussing this?" Ms. Marvel snapped.

"I've had enough of you!" Sentry snarled and got HP 001 in a bear hug and they could all hear Hydra Prime 001's spine and ribs crunch. Bob then dropped Hydra Prime 001 like a bad habit. Ms. Marvel looked over the body of the battered and beaten Skrull and noticed the Hydra symbol and Hydra Prime 001 on the neck.

Iron Man saw that label as well. Tony's innards went cold realizing that the monster they got into a fight with was just the first of a project. It was then five more Skrulls shattered the window and entered the living room. They looked at the fallen Hydra Prime 001 and looked relieved he was a shattered dying mess.

Behind them was an army of Super Skrulls.

"Avengers Assemble!" Sentry roared before flying right at the horde at their doorstep. Clouds gathered and lightning started to strike from the sky.

V-V-V

The group that Nick Fury had gathered as allies was unique. They were the super heroes Dusk, Shiver Man, Deadpool, Mimic, Adam-X, Quake, Armory, Slag and Blue Shield. It was an odd group to Mr. Fantastic. He also recalled that Arsenal had been disarmed yet she had her gun again. He wondered how Fury was able to find that weapon or find out what happened to Arsenal.

Agent Brand asked "Do you have any idea who half of those people are?"

"Blue Shield was director of security for Project Pegasus, Quake helped Nick Fury in the Secret War, Dusk I remember from the Contest of Champions as I mentioned before, Armory once helped the Avengers fight Ultimo and Deadpool needs no introduction," Reed commented "The others are mostly associates of the X-Men."

"So I just need to ask Hank who these people are then," Brand mused with a slight look of amusement.

"Or Logan," Reed commented "Other than the one with volcanic skin and the white costume. I can't recall ever seeing him before."

"I'm Slag," the fore-mentioned metahuman with obsidian and volcanic rock looking flesh stated. "I've trained around the world and spend every dime I had to become a super hero."

"I noticed you move with the grace of a man half your mass," Mr. Fantastic noted while rubbing his chin. That made Slag's day. At least someone experienced as a hero noticed that.

"If you're all done," Nick Fury said in a tone that made it clear that was an order. "We can get to work."

The former head of SHIELD brought up a hologram. It showed the Skrull Queen being exposed and then eaten by a dinosaur. Armory actually looked a bit green after seeing that. Mimic also looked away when that played. Slag visibly winced. Deadpool actually giggled.

"Stark cut the head off this problem," Fury said with a touch of respect. "Though now the Skrull faction is leaderless. And Reed they got orders to kill Hulkling."

"Makes sense," Brand spoke up. "Given he is their prince and would tell them to stop this."

"What of the Skrull who replaced Pym?" Mr. Fantastic inquired.

"The Avengers stomped him," Nick Fury remarked before lighting his cigar.

"And your exile makes sense now," Reed admitted. "Given Hank having been replaced with none the wiser and his position on who is placed on the 50 super hero teams…"

"Skrull central," Armory remarked thinking about how she got kicked out of Camp Hammond. "Never imagined being kicked out would have been a good thing for me."

"Since Stark routed out the imposters the Avengers finally have been acting as a team," Fury said calmly. Inside he was completely pissed his agent in the Avengers turned out to be the leader of the group he was trying to fight.

"And what...what of my family?" Reed asked with desperation in his eyes.

"Your HQ went to the Negative Zone for a bit," Nick Fury replied. "But now it's back and all the heroes are gathering there for their usually pow wow and get together since Avengers Mansion and Avengers Tower are trash."

"That didn't answer my question Nick," Reed said in a low and almost dangerous tone.

"Your brother in law and the Thing are fine. As are your children." Nick stated. "We have no idea about your wife."

Mr. Fantastic's face was a mask of frustration and anger for several moments before calming down. Anyone that saw it would know the man loved his wife and family dearly. He now saw that taking him out of the picture was only the first step in their plans to deal with him and the rest of Earth's heroes.

"We have to find my wife," Mr. Fantastic told them. "Of course given the Skrull's egotism they likely have her close to where we have to strike to stop them."

"Didn't you stop them once with old monster movies?" Armory asked as she remembered the FF's first battle with the Skrulls.

It actually brought a smile to Reed's face to remember that. A ploy that shouldn't have worked yet had. Though Reed had learned of a group of Monster Hunters that had to deal with giant monsters decades before the space flight that gave him and his friends their powers. And there was of course Monster Island.

And it went without saying Godzilla also existed.

"Well we can't do that again," Nick Fury stated "Now there's a SHIELD base only I know of that has a Minicarrier that doubles as a space ship."

"Just hope this fares better than any SHIELD helicarrier or space station does," Brand said. Fury gave Brand a cold and cutting glare.

"Which one of those is the Mad Thinker rebuilding?" Deadpool mused.

"What?!" Nick Fury growled.

"Oh wrong comic event," Deadpool shrugged.

"Why is he here again?" Slag asked. Everything out of Deadpool's mouth confused him and he honestly couldn't see why anyone would want him around.

"He has less control then Robbin Williams after a few expressos but he gets the job done," Nick Fury gruffly stated.

"So where is this hidden SHIELD base?" Mr. Fantastic inquired getting things back on topic.

"Hidden under the Works," Nick Fury remarked. Reed had a feeling Tony wasn't going to like that at all. That was Force Works old base and that team had ended badly. And he suspected the SHIELD base possibly was hidden in the subbasement that had chronographic weapons.

As Dusk teleported the group Reed was sure that Tony was going to have words with Fury over hiding a SHIELD base under his failures and things he regretted.

Inside the Works the Secret Warriors got the shock of their lives to find Hydra was already there. And they had appeared to have been there for some time. There was a few posters, the floors looked like they had been cleaned several times and the chairs looked a bit worn.

"He loves you," several agents said before changing into their Super Skrull forms.

"There is no way Hydra should know of this," Nick Fury growled as he blew a Skrull's brains out with a Desert Eagle.

"Worry about it later," Mimic called out as he hit a Lethal Legion Super Skrull with his optic blasts.

Adam-X nicked several of the Skrulls and yelled "Burn!"

They screamed as the electrolytes in their bloodstreams ignited. The pain was horrific and they dropped to the ground and it made them easy targets for Deadpool to kill. He cut the heads off a few, and shot a few others.

Armory did her best to avoid looking at Deadpool's carnage while battling a Spider Woman powered Super Skrull. The sight of the spider legs on it made her clench her fist and remember how she lost out being a hero until Fury gave her back her weapon.

Armory's gun fired off a purple substance at a Human Torch Super Skrull and he looked surprised when the substance kept him from being able to flame on again. Blue Shield took down the Skrull with one punch.

Slag moved with the speed and grace of a man half his size and held his own against a Marvel Knights Super Skrull. He managed to get the Skrull with a kick to the face and started punching him in the gut. Jeff wasn't sure it'd work but he kicked the Skrull in a very private spot as hard as he could. The cry of pain told Slag that some things were universal between humans and Skrulls. The newbie hero was then punched into a wall by a Lady Liberators Super Skrull. She was about to punch straight through him when Mr. Fantastic wrapped his fingers around her legs and threw her off balance.

Then Mr. Fantastic beefed up his muscles to Thing like proportions and punched the Skrull right in the face. The last thing she had expected from Mr. Fantastic was such an attack, or for the sheer amount of force behind it.

Shiver Man passed through the Lady Liberators Skrull as mist and she screamed out in horrible pain. She then coughed up green blood. Slag decked her with one punch. He considered being merciful. Shiver Man then shot the downed Skrull in the head with a flaming bullet.

Armory opened fire on Colossus sized Human Torch Skrull instead of the flame retardant from before it was a massive energy blast. The Skrull fell out of the air and hit the floor. The floor started to melt before the Skrull managed to stand up. Mimic then hit the Super Skrull with ice and steam came off the him. Quake hit the Skrull at the center of that steam and sent him flying into a wall with a loud crack as he hit.

A shadow fist then hit a Cerebro's X-Men Super Skrull that was about to hit Quake with a massive silvery fist. The red and purple robed Skrull pulled out a sword and tried to gut Quake. An optic blast cut through the sword like a chainsaw through hot butter. Quake wondered what that Skrull was supposed to be. A burst of fire came out of the hands of the Skrull and tried to burn her. Then shadows whipped around the Skrull's legs and slammed him to the ground. Suddenly there was a massive blast from the Super Skrull that disrupted Dusk's shadows.

The air then grew cold around the Skrull. He then fired an ice blast at the shadowy figure that was annoying it. Dusk went into the shadows and Mimic slugged the Skrull using the enhanced strength of Beast boosted with telekinetic powers of Jean Grey. The power sent the Skrull flying through air and he slammed into several regular Hydra Skrull Agents.

The yellow clad Skrulls went down into a heap on the bare slightly dingy silver floor. Reed for a moment as he bended around a Skrull why SHIELD went with silver. It easily showed dirt and raised his eyebrow when he slammed a Skrull into a wall and saw one of the posters.

It had a Skrull child with what appeared two Earth children and the slogan "Embrace Change". Reed also noted strawberries and pickles together on food plates. Reed's heart then went cold as those two foods together tasted like a popular Skrull fruit. And Tony won't have known of that fact.

With the imposter Yellowjacket assigning them to the teams the Skrulls easily could have spread into the 50 teams across the US. They easily could have gotten strawberries and pickles and unless they ate the two together no one would have said a word. Reed also made a note if there was a later to check Tigra in case Skrulls and humans were genetically compatible. Lyja was no help with that issue as the "egg" she gave birth to was really a weapon and it was all a ploy.

Adam-X panted for a moment as his attack had drained him. A pumpkin bomb was thrown at him as a Skrull wearing a purple hat and tunic and black pants. Adam-X managed to get out of the way before the bomb exploded. The Skrull charged at Adam-X with a broadsword.

The Skrull laughed like a maniac while he tried to cut Adam-X in half. Agent Brand shot the Skrull in the leg and he crashed to the ground. Adam-X hit the Skrull in the back of the head with a hammer punch. He put as much force behind it as he could.

A Skrull turned into a multi-eyed Hulk fired optic blasts. Armory ducked behind Blue Shield with the force fielded hero rolling his eyes. Yes he had a force field, but that didn't mean his team mates had to use him as one. He wondered if the Invisible Woman got annoyed about that sometimes.

Nick Fury yelled threw a flash bang at the Skrull and he screamed in pain as there was a massive burst of light in his eyes. Slag punched the blinded Skrull as hard as he could in a very private place. It was dirty, it was underhanded and not something he was taught by the various people around the world he trained under. Jeff didn't care since it worked before and he didn't want to have this guy hit him.

The Shiver Man fired flaming bullets at the Skrulls. Then he saw felt something very strange. There was a Skrull with a lack of evil in his heart in front of him. He had a copy of Captain America's shield and if anything looked scared out of his mind.

It was then three more Skrulls appeared into the base. One wore Thor's classic costume, one dressed like Mockingbird and the last like Jewel. The Secret Warriors to fight the three when the Thor Skrull sent all the Skrulls but the Captain America one flying into the silver walls with a huge gust of wind.

"He is one of ours," the Skrull Mockingbird stated in a firm tone.

"Who are you people?" Blue Shield asked.

"Why we're going to be the Avengers of the Andromeda Galaxy as you call it." the Skrull Thor said with a slight smile.

"Is it always like this?" Slag asked Mimic.

"How should I know? I'm barely ever am part of this stuff." Mimic replied a tired tone.

"You need to get out more. Then again you are one of the author's favorites." Deadpool remarked. "Hey Mr. Fantastic you know Mimic is bipolar?"

Mr. Fantastic looked at Mimic and studied him for a moment. As insane as Deadpool was, Reed was willing to at least humor the idea of Mimic being bipolar. It was something he could test for and help treat.

Nick Fury wondered how Deadpool learned that fact about Calvin Rankin. Still Fury planned for Mimic to get help from Reed Richards, and possibly join the Avengers. The Skrulls shouldn't have known about this base. And neither should have Hydra. Something was up and he was going to get to the bottom of it. He was going to have to launch his other Caterpillar teams into action.

Then the Skrull Thor spun his hammer and the four Skrulls were gone. Mr. Fantastic pondered how much good a team of Skrullian Avengers would do. In light of recent interstellar events a cosmic team of Avengers was needed.

Abigail Brand wondered how big of a mess those Skrulls would cause. Especially with the Avengers as their role models. SWORD was going to be busy she was sure. Especially if Vulcan turned his eyes toward the Andromeda Galaxy. If anything she was sure that the next major alien invasion of Earth would be by Vulcan and the Shi'ar Empire.

Brand wondered what was it about the Earth that made it a major pit stop of the galaxy. Of course right now there were the Skrulls and it seemed like pretty much every super hero on Earth was going to show up to deal with them. Abigail wondered if Hank would like to work as part of SWORD after this mess was over.

"And is there a reason why you have space ships when that is SWORD's area?" Agent Brand asked.

"Because I frankly don't trust you or ARMOR completely," Nick Fury said "Of course I don't even trust SHIELD anymore."

"Not that you ever trusted anyone," Mr. Fantastic said.

"Well I trusted what I thought was Jessica Drew and that back fired," Nick Fury commented.

"I have been able to pull together all the strings," Mr. Fantastic said "This invasion had been planned since before Galactus ate their throne world."

"You and your little group thinking they could get the Skrulls to back off," Nick Fury commented "Black Panther had the right idea turning down membership."

"Can we just get this show on the road?" Slag asked with a sigh. "Seriously I don't why they're invading...I just want to stop it."

"At least I didn't steal a gun so Norman Osborn could become a media darling and rule the super hero community for a year," Deadpool commented in his usually chatty tone.

"Can anyone understand him?" Armory inquired. Everyone shook their head, even Nick Fury.

"I'm a telepath and I can't read him," Mimic admitted. "Or really want to."

"Enough talking," Nick Fury ordered. "We have a job to do."

Dusk vanished into the shadows for a few moments. "The Minicarrier is this way."

As the Secret Warriors journeyed deeper into the base they passed an armory with copies of Absorbing Man's ball and chain, Stormbringer, the Cloak of Levitation, web shooters, Captain America's shield and even copies of the Beetle suits.

"Well I'd say they're prepared this time," Blue Shield commented. Then they all heard what sounded like a little girl giggling.

"And even the smartest among you couldn't see it," a little girl holding Absorbing Man's ball and chain gloated. "Even when we acted much smarter than the fool that has more power then he knows what to do with."

Then the Skrull turned into a form with a massive head, clad only in a pair of red pants. He made a run for Nick Fury and Mr. Fantastic to absorb their intelligence and skills only to find himself running into bullets from Deadpool and Shiver Man. The last thing the Skrull saw was Deadpool's sword.

Mimic looked at the dead Skrull for a moment and then took off to take point and flew into a massive stadium sized room that had the minicarrier. So far it appeared all the Hydra Skrulls in the base had come to attack them but Calvin wasn't sure. With alien shapeshifters things never were what they appeared to be.

Mr. Fantastic started assembling another version of his device that would revert all the Skrulls their normal shape out of parts in machine shop in the room. He hoped the other heroes could defeat the Skrull that had replaced Pym and wondered how long Hank had been replaced.

With a few final touches Reed's device was assembled and powered up. There was a flash of light and all the heroes were truly who they said they were. Several cabinets and tools turned into Skrulls and the Secret Warriors attacked.

"That gizmo effect the Skrulls on the Minicarrier?" Nick Fury asked Reed.

"Yes it would have," Mr. Fantastic stated. "Now we have to save Susan."

"Knowing her it'll likely be finding her beating down the Skrulls," Fury commented. Mr. Fantastic briefly smiled and nodded at that.


	6. Chapter 6

X-Force flew over New York City. The city was completely devastated yet again. And Damage Control had just cleaned up from when those symbiotes had been merged with dinosaurs.

"Where will we land the blackbirds?" Wolfsbane asked.

"Just set them down somewhere," Warpath replied. "We'll use Pym particles to shrink them down and reenlarge them when we need them."

"And were did we get our hands on those?" Rahne asked.

"Beast got his hands on some," Warpath admitted. "Didn't tell me how though."

On the other Blackbird Laura was still ready to kill Shatterstar at a moments notice. Something that still amused Shatterstar. X-23 doubted the alien warrior would be this cocky if he couldn't back it up.

He didn't smell like a Skrull to Laura but that didn't mean anything now. It honestly annoyed the young mutant that for all the training she had gotten, there were aliens out there with even better disguises and skill. And the fact he showed them the head of a Shatterstar Skrull didn't help deal with Laura's doubts on his being the real thing.

The two blackbirds set down at the remains of Avengers Mansion and X-Force was surprised to see an intact Quintjet and several members of the Nova Corps. The intergalactic police force was keeping the Skrulls away for the shattered townhouse.

"Greetings." a Nova that looked like a flying head and shoulder pads stated to them. Then a blue beam hit them and Laura snarled at Qubit.

"You are all who you say you are." the strange alien said.

James smiled at Shatterstar. "Sorry about the cold shoulder 'Star but with all the Skrulls running around it has been hard to know who you can trust."

Shatterstar wasn't holding any grudges for that."Understandable."

It was then Cannonball flew in and landed in front of X-Force. "Rahne what on Earth are you doing in X-Force?"

"Sam I..."

"Rahne I know the sort of stuff X-Force gets into," Sam said with a distant look in his eyes. "It...changes people and there's a reason I've never talked to the others in the X-Men about my time with Pete Wisdom."

"People forget I learned how to fly during that," James noted.

"About that," Shatterstar commented. "It seems only Cable and Domino remember to ask me to be part of their X-Force teams these days. I don't like that at all."

"They didn't call me either for this," Sam remarked. Cannonball really wondered what Cyclops was thinking with his choices for X-Force. Thought at least he didn't add Deadpool to the team.

"I think he's still mad you nearly slapped the Professor in the face," Wolfsbane joked.

"Hey I was just trying to prove you can hurt someone with the open hand method," Cannonball replied.

"Or he could be you keep beating him at poker," James mused. "Seriously Sam you are a card shark."

"All we had for fun growing up was watching wrestling and playing cards," Sam said with a shrug.

"Which explains why you are a super hero and they groan when you show up at the Thing's poker games," Rahne quipped.

"Are going to stand around and talk or are we going to do something?" X-23 snarled.

Sam sighed. Laura definitely was Wolverine's daughter er clone. Whatever she was exactly. Suddenly a Nextwave Super Skrull flew over the mansion and landed in the Hellfire Club New York club.

"I believe that is the action you want X-23," Sam said before taking off.

V-V-V

Echo kicked the Emissaries of Evil Skrull in the gut. With her good arm she punched the Super Skrull in the face.

"What they supposed to be?" Echo asked as the Skrull stumbled.

"The original Emissaries of Evil," Nighthawk remarked as he kicked the Emissaries of Evil Skrull in the gut. "They fought Daredevil once and other then Electro were made up of his early foes."

Maria could see why Wilson Fisk didn't tell her about Matt's early foes. Seriously the Matador alone was rather lame to Echo. And Stilt Man there weren't words that described how pathetic he was. That the Punisher had killed him was unsurprising. It was just odd that it hadn't happened sooner. Honestly Echo wondered if Matt could discuss these earlier foes with a straight face.

Echo then finished off the Skrull by twisting it's arm and then punt kicking it into a dumpster. Echo was starting to feel a bit better about being an Avenger. Like how she'd beaten cosmic cube empowered D'Spayre where even Doctor Strange was unable to.

Nighthawk punched in the face a Lethal Legion Skrull. The Skrull barely flinched as he had Power Man's powers at the forefront. Then came something big and green that scared the Skrulls.

"Sorry I'm late," the Hulk said as he landed on an All New All Different X-Men Skrull with a sickening crunch. "Had to face off against an army of Super Skrulls with my powers, the Thing's and the Juggernaut's all at once."

The Hulk then picked up a street light with his left hand and hit a World War Hulk Skrull in the face. He then slammed the Skrull into the pavement and said "I might have forgiven the Abomination for killing Betty, but I will not forgive you for taking the likeness of when I was fooled and trashed this city."

The WWH Skrull blasted the Hulk with energy beams but the Hulk literally walked through them and slammed the Skrull face first onto his knee. His nose was crushed on impact. The Hulk then punched a New X-Men Skrull in the face. The silvery rocky flesh of the Skrull cracked and oozed out silver blood.

A red blur hit the New X-Men Skrull repeatedly and the Hulk blinked. He couldn't recall there being any heroes that moved that fast and wore red.

"Must be a new guy," the Hulk mused as he backhanded a Skrull with the powers of Spider-man, Firestar and Ice Man. The Skrull slammed into a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Super Skrull with enough force to embed him in the pavement.

Sentry flew in and knocked a Super Skrull with the powers of the New Fantastic Four through a few buildings.

"It's good to see you again Bruce," Sentry said as he hovered at eye level with his emerald friend.

"Call me Professor," the Hulk stated. "And this better then the last time we've run across each other."

"Agreed," Sentry commented. It was then a Fantastic Force Skrull and a Force Works Skrull attacked the pair. The Hulk just shook his head.

V-V-V

Captain Mar-Vell stood over the Skull snipers that were to open fire on the heroes in the Baxter Building. Crusader looked unhappy.

"We should be doing more then this," Crusader said bitterly. He had run out on his friends in Orlando when they were fighting the Skrulls and had this feeling to stay as far away from Triathalon/3-D Man as possible.

"They don't trust us and the instant they saw us the more brutal of them would try to kill us," Mar-Vell stated. "For now we need to remain in the shadows."

"Plus the fact you trashed Thunderbolts Mountain and are known to be a Skrull by these guys doesn't help us at all," Crusader noted.

Captain Mar-Vell turned away from Crusader and clenched his fist. He had no idea why he thought that was a good idea. Still due to that the Thunderbolts went to Washington DC and the vile killers on the team were dead or wished they were.

Suddenly Khn'nr stumbled and face turned to a star field for a moment he saw the Mad Thinker, the Leader, Modak, the Wizard and several other super villains. He also saw a woman with the quantum bands, and a hero in white using his cosmic energies to feed Galactus.

Then Khn'nr saw the life a man who wore a costume similar to his and the woman with the quantum bands.

"So that is what she meant when talking about Genis," Mar-Vell muttered as he tried to clear his head.

"You ok Mar-Vell?" Crusader asked. He sounded a bit concerned for Captain Marvel.

"I think I just experienced Cosmic Awareness," Mar-Vell explained. "And yes I know I am not the true Mar-Vell, yet it seems the last Cosmic Protector had declined the power...and Phyla-Vell has the Quantum Bands but never became the Cosmic Protector."

"So basically you got the job," Crusader remarked.

Mar-Vell nodded. "It appears so."

Fire flicked around the Super Skrull in training and Xavin snarled. "I don't care if you're the cosmic protector or the tooth fairy. I need to save my friends and Karolina."

"The group appears to have some value for new Super Skrulls," Mar-Vell stated. "It would be the only reason they weren't killed."

Crusader winced given he knew how unpleasant that process was. They'd likely rather be killed by the time that was over. Xavin's expression made that clear that he hated that was happening to his friends. Yet if Hulkling was killed things would have been worse.

"Then we better talk with Dorrek," Xavin remarked. "They trust him and will keep the psychos from offing us."

"After the fight is over," Mar-Vell ordered. "We show up in the middle of this and we will get killed or drawn into a pointless hero vs. hero fight."

Xavin frowned as he honestly didn't like that at all. Yet he knew Mar-Vell was right. And hated it with every fiber of his being. He needed to save friends and he wanted to do it now. His beloved was in the hands of religious extremists.

And he was sure that if their god showed up on Earth that Thor would beat his emerald hide and dump him some other dimension using his magic hammer.

"Forgive me my friends," Xavin muttered as he shook his head sadly.

V-V-V

In the Baxter Building a Hydra Prime Skrull fired Power Cosmic energy blasts at the heroes. The Thing snorted as the blasts were nothing compared to the Silver Surfer's or even Terrax's attacks. The Skrull even had a few of Patriot's throwing stars embedded in his flesh. Even Morg won't be hurt by those.

Suddenly the Skrull was slammed aside as a Squadron Sinister Skrull collided with him. A massive blue armored figure came in the hole made by a Redeemers Super Skrull earlier. Everyone looked at the inhuman looking monster as he stood up.

"Hey guys," Rick Jones said as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry I'm late."

"Who is that?" Nova asked. Rich wondered exactly how many heroes had popped up since he left Earth before everything in space got invaded by Annihilus. And even more that appeared after registration was started.

"Rick Jones," Human Torch remarked. "Calls himself A-Bomb now."

"Seriously?" Nova asked. Rich then tried to recall if he'd ever met Rick Jones before and was drawing a blank. He then punched a Skrull that head flames around his head.

"Hey I am an Avenger," A-Bomb noted as he punched a Skrull with metal wings, hair that looked impossibly huge hair, huge shoulder pads, a massive gun and covered in pouches. The Super Skrull's eye glowed and telekinetically threw a bust of the Thing at Rick. Rick dodged it and round house kicked the Skrull in the head and sent him flying.

"Honorary and we really need to stop handing them out to everyone that walks through the door," Iron Man commented as he blasted several Skulls with his repulsors.

"Surprised there are only two X-Men that are part of the Avengers," Ink commented as he punched an Excalibur Super Skrull in the face. "Or that it took so long for Wolverine to get in."

"Yeah he's the only guy who teamed up with the Avengers West Coast team to not get one," Patriot noted as he knocked a Skrull to the ground with a roundhouse kick. That Patriot knew that fact didn't surprise anyone.

"It's not quite that bad,"Wonder Man said defensively as he blocked a punch from a Captain Ultra Super Skrull.

"War Machine, Darkhawk, Spider Woman, the Living Lightning, even the Thing here got membership," Cipher listed off. "As did the Original Human Torch."

"For all of five minutes," Ben remarked. "And who are you again?" The Thing knew Reed had a scorecard on the various X-members.

"I'm Cipher," the Young X-Man explained. "I've been laying low to avoid certain people."

"Anyway it's the first time we've had one of these get togethers since I got these powers," A-Bomb commented as he decked a Sinister Six Skrull. "At least this time Moondragon isn't using me as the Destiny Force weapon."

"Yeah that wasn't your finest hour Rick," Johnny Storm said as he blasted a large red skinned Ms. Marvel Super Skrull with a massive fireball. She appeared to be a mix of Ms. Marvel and the Red Hulk.

It was then a grey and black battle armored figure appeared. At first they thought he was James Rhodes but the faceplate for the armor was repainted slightly. It was the symbol of the Punisher. He opened fire on the Skrulls and blew one that looked like a bunch of mob bosses away.

"How did he get his hands on that?" Ben yelled.

"I don't know," Iron Man coldly stated. "But I intend to find out."

Tony then took off after Frank Castle as the Punisher flew off to get into the melee down at street level.

V-V-V

Outside the heroes were fighting off the new wave of Skrulls when a flying saucer appeared and several people were beamed to the street. Wasp gasped as she saw who they were.

"You?" Wasp exclaimed. "But Immortus destroyed you all!"

"You got any idea what she's talking about?" Ken asked confused on how the Wasp even knew about them.

"Alternate versions of ourselves that called themselves the Avengers in the 1950s," the Uranian calmly stated.

"Us Avengers?" Ken said shaking his head."Man that's crazy."

The Living Robot glared at Wolverine for a moment before blasting a Weapon X Super Skrull. He vaporized the flesh from one of the arms of the Skrull. Still Logan got the message loud and clear. Wolverine raised just his middle claw at the killer robot.

Logan then turned his attention to how X-Force was doing.

Shatterstar quickly and easily sliced off an X-Statix Super Skrull's arm and then cut his head off. Robbie Rider turned green. Not because he was a Skrull but because he had never seen anyone behead another living being right in front of him before. And frankly never wanted to see that ever again as long as he lived.

X-23 surprised a Cap's Kooky Quartet Super Skrull by extended one of her leg claws while hitting him with a roundhouse kick. Then suddenly a yellow energy bomb flew through the air and exploded with incredible force as it hit a Sinister Six Super Skrull.

"Tabitha!" Cannonball yelled. "Amazing to see you showed up for this."

"Since Nextwave broke up I've been bored," Meltdown said as she threw her time bombs at the Super Skrulls. "Can't believe they didn't ask me to be in X-Force."

"Join the club." Shatterstar commented as he gutted a Mutant Liberation Front Super Skrull.

None of this was helping Robbie's stomach. Ares joining in armed with a chaingun and mowing down Skrulls was the last straw and Kid Nova vomited. After puking his guts out Robbie looked up and saw Captain America. Robbie felt even worse. However Captain America's expression wasn't one of disgust or annoyance or even pity.

Faster then Kid Nova thought possible Captain America raised his shield and blocked several hot knives an X-Force Super Skrull fired. Then a red blur sped by and send the Skrulls flying around. Then a girl dressed like Bucky helped Robert to his feet. The red blur stopped for a moment and handed Robbie a napkin to clean up with.

"Thanks," Kid Nova said and realized the really fast guy was already gone.

Captain America threw his shield and knocked down a Marvel Knights Skrull. Bucky leaped over the downed Skrull and kicked a Lady Liberators Super Skrull in the face and knocked her back several steps.

A hammer hit the Lady Liberators Skrull in the gut and even as tough as she was her breath was violently expelled from her mouth. The magical hammer flew back to Thor's hand and the skys darkened and hail stones started to rain down on the super powered Skrull. Stones that got bigger and bigger and soon were the size of ripe mellons.

Wondra flew in and hit a World War Hulk Skrull in the face. It barely flinched and grabbed Jubilee by the throat. Kid Nova flew into the fight. Suddenly he had Wondra thrown at him and the two fell to the ground.

"Smooth movie Robbie," Kid Nova muttered. He imagined he'd wow his fellow Nova Corps members and show he had more brains then his brother. So far it wasn't working out that way. And he was starting to see why Rich wanted the New Warriors to watch over him.

"Hulk take out that Masters of Evil Skrull, Simon you and Carol stop those Emissaries of Evil Super Skrulls," Wasp ordered. "Ares stop gutting that Super Skrull and back up Captain America."

"So you're leader of the Avengers now then," Ares said with a look a amusement. Wasp then flew up into Ares face.

"And don't think I'll put up with any crap from you," Wasp said in a menacing tone. She'd learned from her mistakes in commanding Hercules and if anything Ares was even worse in many aspects then the Prince of Power was.

Thor slammed his hammer into the gut of a Frightful Four Super Skrull. She was knocked out of the air, only to be hit with a pulse bolt from Iron Man. She slammed into a Nitro Skrull which Captain America hit on the head with his shield to make sure he stayed down.

The Hulk then threw a Wrecking Crew Skrull on top of the Frightful Four one.

"At least they aren't ninjas," Speed commented.

A Skrull dressed like Electra with a cloak tried to take out Hulkling. Her sai literally was crushed on the Hulk's chest.

Teddy gasped at meeting his idol. The Hulk gave him a warm smile and then slammed the Skrull assassin after him into the ground. She got up and they heard the sound of drums. Until Sentry flew in and hit her fist first at high speeds. She was sent flying through the air and hit the ground extremely hard. Ares cut her head off with his claymore to make sure.

Seeing how easily the Skrull assassin sent to kill Dorrek was dispatched by the three heroes made it clear to Xavin why they wanted Hulk, Sentry and the Avengers out of the way for their invasion.

Then came a horde of Nova Corps members to mop up what was left behind after the heroes. They were all human and clearly pissed off. To the Skrulls it was like a nightmare given form as they showed no mercy and started slaughtering them with energy blasts, punches, kicks, and whatever they could get their hands on to beat them with.

"Get away from them!" someone shouted. The heroes and Nova Corps paused to see a large group of people holding signs like "Skrulls are our friends" or "Embrace Change" and Rich Rider was flabbergasted.

"What the blue blazes is wrong with you?" Nova bellowed with energy crackling around his eyes and hands.. "They've been trying to kill us for decades now and just because they say they will improve things you believe them?"

"We could just kill them all," Ares commented and he loaded up a Ma Deuce. "Fools like this aren't needed in the gene pool."

"What would a Greek God know about the gene pool?" Ronin commented. "You family tree is an inbred mess."

"That's exactly why I'd know," Ares said with a savage smile.

"We also have to think about this logically," the Hulk commented. "Yes I am aware at the irony of me saying that. In any case these people haven't had the many encounters with the Skrulls and their manipulations as we have."

"They are ignoring that an alien army has invaded New York City and are destroying the place," The Uranian stated calmly. "And going by their thoughts they are people who believe anything, or struggling to find something to believe in, or Skrulls themselves and find this extremely amusing."

"Hey didn't you go crazy and try to kill some bank presidents?" Hulkling asked.

"That was a clone created of me that was mentally scrambled," the Agent of Atlas replied with a weary expression. He was quite tired of having to deal with that mess.

"Scrambled like the eggs I had this morning," Ken Hale remarked.

"You don't understand," a man that looked like he hadn't bathed in a week, and with a large beer gut said. "They're here to help us and everything."

"We're dealing with a group of religious extremists with good public relations," Wasp said flying into the man's face. "They do not care about you or uplifting your lives in the slightest."

"So scram!" Hulk bellowed at the crowd. Even the questionable sanity of members of the crowd wasn't enough to keep them from following an order from the Incredible Hulk.

"Wolverine," Wasp ordered. "Find Danielle!"

Wolverine stared at the Janet for a moment. He was not a baby sitter, yet in the middle of this madness that girl needed all the help she could get. And killing Skrulls wasn't any worse then killing ninjas. Wondra looked like she wanted to go with Logan like old times, but she knew she had to keep the New Warriors together.

Bandit had vanished off again and Jubilee had enough of his games. If he wasn't going to be around to lead then she would. And Jubilee was hit on how odd that thought was considering before this she hadn't ever thought of being a team leader.

'Still,' Wondra thought. 'Someone has to do it.'

V-V-V

The Punisher wasn't surprised in the slightest when Tony Stark walked over to him. He knew this confrontation was going to happen the instant he showed up in public wearing the War Machine armor. Stark was very against other people using his stuff without his knowledge or blessing.

"Where the hell did you get that suit?" Iron Man growled at Frank Castle.

"In a pawn shop," Frank coldly replied. "Seems your buddy needed some funds to fight one of the groups that sprang to power after the Kingpin's fall due to Daredevil."

"You mean to tell me Rhodey sold his War Machine armor at a pawn shop to fund his war against the 66 Bridges?" Tony snapped. "What the hell was he thinking?"

"Be glad I was the one to buy it," Frank Castle remarked. "I had Stuart replace the missing gauntlet and change the access codes."

"Stuart Clarke? You got Rampage to help you?" Iron Man asked.

"Said he knew this armor really well," Frank Castle noted. "Pain to get something that blocks your Extremis from controlling the tech of the suit."

Stark upped his respect of Stuart Clarke for being able to find a way to keep to him just taking control of that War Machine armor. Still he had to get that armor out of Frank Castle's hands after this was over. The Punisher was bad enough on his own with using his hardware in his quest.

It was bad enough for Frank Castle to dress up as an obscene parody of Captain America once, to let him have Stark technology to kill people with turned Tony's stomach. Then Tony wondered why the Punisher was working with a cop killer. Admittedly Frank Castle had killed cops, but they tended to be corrupt cops or ones that tried to go for the Punisher's money.

And Tony wasn't sure what was sadder; the depths to which Stuart Clarke had fallen since he first became Rampage, or that the Punisher had killed men whose only crime was tempting them with his money and letting his security system do it for it.

"You do know that Rampage has killed cops right?" Tony asked. "Not that it should matter to you."

One could feel Frank Castle's expression hardening behind that faceplate.

"You better be joking," Frank said in a low and dangerous tone.

"That Stuart Clarke has killed cops? Of course not. How you shouldn't care...well you've killed cops before for very flimsy reasons Castle, and frankly I think you're a suicidal nutcase who just wants to take as many people he can with him."

"Then Stuart's a dead man after this," the Punisher stated. "And you can have this armor after I'm done."

Frank knew enough about powered armor that it was best to ditch them when you went after the person or persons that kept your suit in working order. Which was a pity since he rather liked the War Machine suit.

"I'm holding you to that," Iron Man said in a firm commanding tone. His reputation was going to be slandered enough due to this invasion, his property being used by the Punisher won't help it at all. And have a discussion with Rhodey after this was done about what he did with his old War Machine armors.

Tony knew he'd have to get that suit away from Frank Castle after the crisis. Besides those issues, there was the issue of that the suit was mentally set to be used by Rhodey and it could cause the Punisher to act irrationally. Which he'd read that's when Castle shot jaywalkers and litterers and was not something he wanted to see happen again.

V-V-V

"Bub this is not amusing," Logan snarled as he stepped over the dead body of a Skrull with what looked like a bull headed helmet, a four on his torso, and a copy of Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer in his hands.

"It isn't meant to be," the Skrull said. His skin had turned orange and black, which clashed with his white cloak. He had grown a second set of arms to hold his battle staves while the baby was in his original arms.

Logan did something the Jarvis Skrull won't expect. He picked up the faux Captain America shield and slammed into the Skrull's face. There was a loud crunch as the Skrull's nose was broken and James Howlett stepped on the Skrull agent's foot as hard as he could.

"How dare you," the Jarvis imposter growled.

"Hand over the kid," Wolverine snarled.

"This child is far more important then you can imagine," 'Jarvis' stated.

"Bub I have had do deal with enough destined or written down crap that if I used it for the only good thing I could think of I'd never run out of toilet paper!" Logan yelled.

"He might love you but..." the Skrull yelled just before Danielle Cage was swiped from his hands. "What?"

"I hope you can tell with this," Quicksilver commented as he held the baby in a more comfortable position.

Wolverine gutted the Skrull pretending to be Jarvis. His claws stuck out the alien's back and then Logan had to deal with a bigger crisis. He had to tell Jessica Jones the man she married was an alien pretending to be the man she loved.

'Well at least it's easier then explaining Slim's family tree' Wolverine mused. He then wished he could easily tell if that really was Quicksilver in front of him or not. Though he wasn't sure if he really wanted it to be Pietro after the messes he created.

The whole House of M mess, causing a silent war between humanity and the Inhumans, and causing depowered mutants to burst into flames in Mutant town when their power source turned deadly. It was enough to make him think both children of Magneto had lost their mind. And Lorna's insanity on top of that helped their cases even less.

And to his disgust Logan was thinking about including Pietro on his X-Force team. And then remembered Iron Man knew exactly who they were and likely where to go knocking to find them.

"And you haven't done things that you were ashamed of," Pietro remarked snidely when he saw Wolverine's expression. "I believe must of us would call that your entire past."

"I might as well kill you and claim it was a Skrull," Logan snarled. "If you really aren't one."

"Yes save this girl from a Skrull only to be one in some complex plot," Quicksilver commented while rolling his eyes. "If I was I'd just beat on you while he ran off. Of course how can I be sure you're not a Skrull since they've done it before."

"Stark's device showed that I was who I say I am," Wolverine snapped.

"Took him long enough," Quicksilver remarked. "Now are we going to get me tested or are we going to have another of those inane hero vs. hero brawls?"

Wolverine just snarled out "Follow me."

V-V-V

In outer space James Rhodes looked at Cybermancer. The small space station they were hiding on hid them from being seen by the Skrulls.

Rhodes thought about attacking, but saw the Skrull ship from Wakanda take off and leave. They were able to tell everyone on it had been killed as their sensors detected no life signs on the starship. That made Rhodey feel a bit safer knowing that at least T'Challa and his people survived the invasion and that he'd get some back up.

Suddenly they got a signal.

Suzi looked wary for a moment before tuning into the transmission. Tony Stark's face appeared as a holographic image.

"Suzi, Rhodey," Tony Stark stated "I've managed to recover and I've brought some friends."

"Friends?" Rhodey asked. Then he saw a minihelicarrier, several quintjets, two Blackbirds, an alien ship he recalled the Fantastic Four got off the Skrulls, and a fly saucer of all things. And surrounding them was the entire Nova Corps with Iron Man in space armor leading the charge.

Rhodey liked to imagine that the Skrulls all just wet themselves in fright at seeing that army. And a feeling of hope filled War Machine's still organic heart. They might just win this thing.


	7. Chapter 7

The prisoners on the Skrull ships could feel and nearly smell the sense of fear in their captors. It brought joy to them as they knew the Skrulls had once again over extended themselves or did something stupid to turn the tide against them. And now the Skrulls seemed to fear those they had captured for their long term plans. The only problem was when to strike before the Skrulls tried to have everyone killed.

Suddenly the lights went out for a moment and guards watching them got scared. The prisoners couldn't understand what they were saying, but that they scared out of their minds was universal from the tones of their voices.

Hank Pym struggled to get himself free. He then realized that they were able to keep him from changing size but his specially treated equipment still would be able to. He hid it even in ways that the Skrulls won't be able to find them. Even in the compromising position he was captured in.

Hank just hoped no one would ask him where he put all of it. It was kind of embarrassing to be honest. And he was sure that Deadpool had hidden things in that place before. Then again Deadpool had done a lot of things shouldn't surprise people.

There was a surge and the electronics in Pym's shackles burned out. Pym appeared to vanish for a moment and when he enlarged again he was dressed in a variant of his original Giant Man costume. He had wanted to take up this identity after Janet left him once again. Not that he blamed her for leaving him. Their relationship had been destroyed by him and nothing could ever fix it to even close to what it had been before. Why they thought that possible confused Pym now. As did the brief relationship between Janet and Clint.

With nothing else to do but think for months, he'd finally figured that out. And pondered asking Tigra out. He wasn't sure if she'd say yes, but it at least was a start on getting back into the dating scene. Not that he considered Greer to be easy, but she was a woman he knew how to keep entertained and happy on a date. And in this case their previous experience together wasn't a weight around his neck.

He frankly wondered why he took up the Yellowjacket identity again. Whatever happiness it had once was now been tainted by many things he was ashamed of. Hank supposed it was feeling he'd put that ghost to rest when he'd merged together the two halves he'd become.

Giant Man found it curious he was the only one to have any after effects to Kulan Gath's magic in Costa Verde.

'Perhaps a scientific look into magic would be in order after this,' Hank Pym mused to himself. While magic didn't flow the rules of science there was the chance to use the scientific approach to figure out magic's own rules.

Pym then went through a crack in the worn brass wall of his cell and blasted the pair of guards with his improved stingers in his gloves. They were knocked back by the power of weapons and the guards clearly weren't trained soldiers as they fired wildly.

Nor where they were told about Bishop's energy absorbing powers as he hit several times by bolts in his purposely crude cell that was metal bars and a bed so he couldn't use that energy to attack them. The X-Man from the future smiled grimly and hit one of the Skrullian guards in the face with an energy blast.

Giant Man grew to ten feet tall and slammed the heads of the guards together. The pair fell to the ground. Hank shook his head. Take away the advantage of stealth and surprise and this group of Skrulls was nothing more then a joke. A very bad joke at that. One he didn't find funny at all.

"Wow, entertainment for the day," Sharon Venture remarked sarcastically. "Maybe we'll see a magic show too."

Susan Richards looked shocked at her former team mates reaction. As did the other heroes. They didn't expect to hear that level of pessimism out of her.

"Well pardon me for not trust him one bit," She-Thing snarled as she hovered mid air in a light blue dome. "And this is just another game to mess with me!"

This Sharon Venture looked like the one mutated by Doctor Doom for failing her, not her original appearance as Susan Richard had seen her have since the time Sharon stayed with Wyatt Wingfoot and his tribe. It made Invisible Woman wonder if she'd been replaced then or the Skrulls were behind on their information.

What made Susan feel worse was she never even asked Sharon how her appearance had changed back then, or why her disposition had become a lot sunnier despite her appearance only going back to her original She-Thing form.

"I agree with Sharon," Mockingbird spoke up. Bishop looked at Mockingbird for a moment.  
"How did you survive Bobbi?"Giant Man asked her in a soft voice.

"The one that died was a Skrull," Mockingbird snarled. "She stole my life from me!"

Hank Pym surprised the Skrull Mockingbird by blasting her with a stinger and putting high voltage through her body and causing her to revert to her natural form. It was a trick the Living Lightning had discovered by accident in that whole mess with the Shi'ar and the Kree. It was still the one way to check that the Skrulls didn't have a counter for.

"How?" she moaned in pain.

"Because Bobbi Morse is dead," Pym stated flatly with an undertone of pain in his voice. "And I can't understand why you think we can be made to think otherwise."

"So we're the Defenders or something?" Luke Cage asked while shaking his head.

"No...now we're Avengers," Hank Pym said firmly. It just felt right for Giant Man to use that title.

Luke Cage looked at their group. It was him, She-Thing, Black Widow, Bishop, Invisible Woman, Brother Voodoo and Spider-Woman. And of course Hank 'I franchise super hero names' Pym himself.

"Bishop you and Sharon take point," Hank commanded firmly. Invisible Woman watched Giant Man or whatever he was called now closely. She also kept a close eye on She-Thing.

Black Widow hadn't said anything but she took one of the laser blasters of the downed guards. It wasn't her bracelets but it would have to do for now.

The gleaming silver interior reminded Pym of the interior of Avengers Mansion after it had been rebuilt, and before it had been turned back into the old brownstone in the final confortation with the Gatherers.  
Then suddenly a wall exploded and they were face to face with Songbird, Nighthawk, Atlas, Penance, Moonstone, and Radioactive Man. The "Avengers" then looked at the Punisher symbol on the face War Machine. The Thunderbolts looked over the freed heroes with a critical eye. They looked like the originals but that didn't mean much. Karla also pondered the unrelated thought of how Johnny Storm's ex-wife couldn't know his favorite movie.

'No wonder the relationship between the two can never work out,' Karla thought with a great deal of amusement.

"Didn't Bishop go crazy or something?" Atlas asked Radioactive Man. Doctor Chen shrugged.

"Keeping track of the various members of all the X-groups is enough to drive someone mad," Nighthawk mused.

The Punisher wondered why he let them team him up with the bunch. Though he had to admit the ones he'd shoot in the head were already dead.

"We don't have time for this," Songbird sighed. Why couldn't Clint have stayed with them instead of going back to the Avengers?

"If you're really the heroes and not fakes can we please avoid another hero vs. hero brawl?" Moonstone remarked in an arrogant tone. "We don't really have time for one of those macho pissing contests."

"Well that sounds like Moonstone," Pym mused as he scanned them with an improved version of the Skrull reverter that he had made based off Tony and Reed's design. They came up clean but he wasn't entirely sure. It was an untested device after all. Shocking them like he did the faux Mockingbird would start a super hero vs. super hero brawl. Especially if that was Frank Castle with them.

That matter was then made clear when the Skrulls on the ship attacked both groups. The Skrulls didn't try to kill their agents during an invasion. Then there was a horrific scream as a Gen X Super Skrull attacked them.

A spell from Brother Voodoo sent the Skrull flying backward. She crashed into a Super Skrull with a copy of Thor's hammer, Iron Man's armor, Falcon's wings, Wolverine's gloves and boots, the Hulk's massive size.

"That doesn't look good," Luke Cage muttered as the Skrull barely looked barely even fazed. She-Thing hoped to have better luck as she punched the Squadie Super Skrull in the face.

Sharon's hay maker knocked the Skrull back a few steps and he let out a dark chuckle. Then started spinning his arm with his hammer. Knowing what he was going to do, She-Thing picked up the knocked down Gen X Skrull and used her as a baseball bat to hit the other Skrull with.

It hurt a lot more then this time to both Skrulls. Giant Man went ant sized and flew into the Super Hero Squad Skrull's ear and the Skrull screamed in pain as he blasted the inner ear. Pym then found he had to dodge parts of the ear shape shifting into razor sharp spikes.

Invisible Woman surprised the Skrulls by using martial arts to take them down. She judo threw an X-Factor Skrull into an Avengers West Coast one. The only hero there not surprised by that was Luke Cage.

"Danny always said you were one of his best students," the former hero for hire grinned as he decked a Skrull with the powers of his old foes.

"Does everyone know martial arts?" Atlas asked as he slammed a Super Skrull with the powers of Cerebro's X-Men into the ground.

"Captain America teaches the Avengers," Penance remarked as he kinentically slammed a platoon of Skrulls out of their way. "Vance told me about it once."

"I really never had the patience for it," Nighthawk admitted as he dodged a blow from a Hyperion and Whizzer powered Skrull.

The Punisher answered by blowing holes in Skrulls with his suit's palm repulsors and a shoulder mounted minigun.

Bishop shook his head and grabbed the arm of a Skrull soldier and twisted in. The Skrull screamed in pain and Bishop headbutted her to take her out. Then several Skrulls hit him with laser blasts.

"Clearly they did not read up on your powers," Giant Man noted as it seemed whoever build the cell to hold the member of the X-Men didn't tell the rank and file. It was a haphazard level of training the Skrull armed forces lacked.

Pym was proven right as Bishop unleash the absorbed energy in one massive burst at the Skrulls. It knocked everyone they were fighting off their feet. Frank Castle unloaded on those shape-shifters and blood started to splatter.

Radioactive Man gave them cover fire with blasts of radiation. He wasn't sure what the long term effects would be and frankly at the moment could care less what it'd do to Skrullian bodies. They desired to take over the world in a massive preplanned invasion and they got what they deserved.

"We need to get to the power core of this ship," Songbird ordered.

"To shut down the power or take control of the FTL drive and send them back home?" Pym asked as he slammed several Excalibur Skrulls into the ground.

"Either," Atlas admitted as he flung a New Fantastic Four Skrull into a group of Skrull troops. "Though Abe and Techno picked a lousy time to be no shows for the big world in danger event."

"Less talking, more world saving," She-Thing nearly growled as she flung a Super Skrull in a Rhino costume with Doctor Octopus's tentacles and the Scorpion's stinger into a Skrull with massive shoulder pads and a red leather jacket.

They then were attacked by several Super Skrulls in Bartoc's costume. Bishop remembered how quickly Gambit had beaten the original. It only his refined skills from being a member of the XSE that kept him from getting all the ribs on the left side of chest from being broken as these three Skrulls also had the powers of Spider-Man.

"I don't like this," Brother Voodoo remarked as his hands glowed with mystical energy.

"No, really?" Luke Cage remarked as he grabbed the leg of one of the Savante using Skrulls and twisted it hard. The cries of pain made it clean even for a a race as fluid as the Skrulls that there were some directions that bending weren't possible for their bodies.

The Avengers were still watched closely by the Thunderbolts. Though Moonstone figured they were very likely on the level with them.

'Like Swordman's sister was...' Karla mused to herself. The fact she was what she said she was surprised Moonstone. Though given she died in Washington DC Swordsman should have asked for a warranty.

Jessica Drew then hit a Fantastic Force Super Skrull in the face with a bioblast.

"So what are you looking for?" Pym inquired wondering what they hoping to accomplish.

"The bridge and the power source," Radioactive Man replied. "We need to deal with this for good."

"That we can all agree on," She-Thing put gruffly as she felt some semblance of hope for the first time in a very long time. It was an almost foreign feeling to Sharon Venture.

"You take engineering," Invisible Woman told them in an charge tone. "We'll take the bridge."

Pym gave Susan a slightly bitter expression and he thought he was the one charge of this. Moonstone found this power struggle to be amusing.

"Yes let's do that," Songbird agreed. At the moment she was winging it and hoping the other teams were doing their parts. There was too much at stake for them to fail. The world was literally depending on them.

V-V-V

The hanger to the Warship, Dorrick's Revenge, was punched through literally by the being they knew as the Sentry. The Guardian of Good had as much reaction to their laser fire as if it was a light drizzle of rain on a hot summer day. He expanded the hole for his team mates.

A modified Quintjet flew into the massive hanger bay and the Skrulls fought harder to keep their enemies out. The Avengers were only behind the Fantastic Four as their most hated Earth metahuman team. The fact they hadn't turned an emperor's cousin in a grazing animal was what kept them from being at the top of the list.

"Avengers Assemble!" Ronin yelled as the door was opened and fired off several arrows at the Skrull guards. A net arrow trapped a Taskmaster Skrull and another arrow covered a Champions Super Skrull in ice.

Then a red blur passed Clint Barton and at speeds the Skrulls still were shocked at, the Flash did his best to disarm the Skrulls and knock them out. Working with Sentry felt so right, and so completely utterly wrong at the same time. Bob definitely was not Clark by any means. Maybe with some help the man could be the stalwart of justice Superman is, but that was not going to be soon. There was sense of darkness under the surface of Sentry that worried the Fastest Man Alive.

"Man where has this guy been?" Clint asked appearing to be talking to himself. Only the most sharp eyed Skrulls could see the Winsome Wasp flying around his head.  
"He said he lost his memory and ended up wondering around," Wasp remarked as she flew around Ronin. "And that the Flash we encountered used to be his sidekick. Why he couldn't move as fast as Barry can is unknown."

"Maybe he ended up hogging the Speed Force," Wonder Man suggested as he dodged a punch from a Hellions Super Skrull. "Whatever that is exactly."

The ionic hero was surprised when Barry stopped dead in his tracks in front of them shocked. They knew people from his dimension? How was that possible? When did this happen? Could they take him home? What shape was home in given the battle with the Antimonitor was raging across so many worlds.

"You...you've all met Wally?" he asked quietly. "And he was the Flash?"

"Talk about it later," Ares groaned. This sort of sentimentality made him desire to vomit blood. "We have work to do. And I do want to get to see my son sooner then later."

"You have a son?!" Ronin gasped. Ares gave the archer a dark look for a moment, pondering if splitting the man's skull would be worth the moment's entertainment.

Several Skrulls coming out of the shadows with their battle cry of "He loves you" highlighted Ares' point. Wonder Man punched a Marvel Knights Super Skrull in the face and she was sent flying into her allies.

A Young Avengers Skrull swooped in and fired on Ronin. The experienced Avenger rolled and fired off an electric arrow at the same time. He seemed amused until a massive Giantman II Super Skrull fell over onto him and they both crashed to the ground. Then the pair were hit with arrows that caused ice to form over their bodies.

Then a patriotic circular shield flew through the air and slammed into the Super Skrulls coming at them.

Captain America then dropped behind some cover and fired his gun. The acrid smell of gunsmoke filled the air.

"Is that a Luger?" Ares asked shaking his head. "James Barnes you do know what a Desert Eagle is right?"

The current Sentinel of Liberty gave the Greek God of War an annoyed glare. Ares was not impressed and took pleasure in driving a claymore through the guts of a New Avengers Skrull. He noticed they left the Sentry out. Either due to him usually being off to whine so often or because of the fact the Guardian of Good was already batshit crazy and they didn't want to see if their copy would go insane and try to kill them all.

"Or even an uzi. Those also work quite well," Ares added as he dodged a fireball from a Human Torch Skrull. It was really poorly thrown as well.

Ares then pulled out an uzi he had strapped to his leg to prove his point. The hollow point rounds cut through unaltered or unarmored Skrullian flesh with ease. Then an Excalibur Super Skrull came out of the ground and with Colossus's organic steel form crushed the firearm.

Ares laughed and stabbed the Skrull in throat with his adamantium knife. The Skrull's shocked expression as he gasped amused him. He dearmored and tried to pull the knife out. Ares dropped his crushed gun and punched the Skrull in the face with his now free hand. He then slammed the battered Skrull into a wall and then cut through where the lungs were down through the heart.

The Flash looked at Ares like he was completely and utterly out of his mind. He'd fought villains less disturbing then Ares. And he was fairly sure if Diana ever met him that she'd shove one of the Greek God's guns somewhere very uncomfortable and in the most painful way she could.

'This Ares is different than my worlds. And still thinks he's a god of war,' Barry thought to himself as he battled a Skrull with powers like his and Superman's. Yet the costume looked wrong to the Fastest Man Alive. The Squadron Supreme Super Skrull fired him laser vision Barry, but found that his target was gone.

Barry went through the floor and went up behind the Skrull and hit him in the back of the skull. The emerald alien warrior turned and managed to grab the Scarlet Speedster's fist when he tried to hit the Squadron Supreme Skrull again. Then suddenly Dragonfang came out of the Skrull's guts. Barry winced as the alien screamed in pain and neon green blood flowed from the wound.

"Looks like uncle Hades was onto something re-empowering her," Ares remarked as he cut a Fantastic Force Skrull in half head to crotch with a massive battle axe. It was something that Barry made a note to look up. He figured he'd be looking at a lot of records to understand what they were talking about so causally.

A Sinister Six Skrull was about to attack Wonder Man when Captain America's shield slammed into his guts. Simon Williams punched the Skrull and it turned to sand. A mocking expression formed on the Skrull's face.

"Fists second only to Thor's hammer can't stop sand," the Super Skrull proclaimed with a savage smirk. Then it found sand wasn't a good form around the Scarlet Speedster. Flash ran around the Skrull and the silicon form of the alien slammed into the ceiling of the hanger bay.

"Thanks," Wonder Man called out to the Flash.

It was then that a red Abomination with an electric arm nailed Wonder Man with his electric arm. Said Skrull Sentry grabbed by the throat and flung at the other Skrulls and managed to knock over a Thing/Hulk/Juggernaut Super Skrull.

"We're definitely going to need to work on our teamwork after this," Ronin and Wasp said nearly in unison. They then looked at each other.

"Looks like great minds think a like," Janet said in a playful tone.

"When you've been leader as long as either us have been it comes natural," Clint commented before punching a Bartoc Skrull in the face. The savate using Skrull was knocked to the ground.

"Jeez even Bartoc doesn't have a glass jaw like that," Clint remarked as he shook his head. "It takes more then one punch to the face for him to go down."

The next thing Clint saw was a Skrull he had no idea what it was. He was wearing a mostly green and purple costume with oversized gloves, a silver mask, a Revolutionary War hat, and had a pair of brown wings on his back.

"Now that's something I didn't imagine I'd see," Captain America admitted as he caught his shield. He then blocked a punch from that Super Skrull with his shield.

"So what is he?" Simon Williams asked as he grabbed the arms of the Skrull in a vice-like grip.

"Team called the Crusaders," Bucky remarked as he bashed the Skrull in question in the face with his shield.

"They were dupes of the Nazis given machine based powers. After that mess was sort out most of them retired after they lost their powers. However one of them became Captain America. The second one if I remember correctly."

Suddenly the Skrull shrank down to six inches tall and hit Wonder Man in the leg. Simon nearly fell over from then force of the blow. And suddenly he reappeared at full size and Ronin fired an arrow. The knock out gas arrow flew through him and nearly hit Ares before Flash grabbed it and threw it at an X-Force Skrull and they got a large breath of the gas.

"What the?" Clint asked confused. Was it an illusion? Intangiblity? Hologram? Magic?

That really annoyed Hawkeye. He needed a handbook to tell whose powers these Skrulls had. While Flash reminded of the Freedom Fighters by the powers the Skrull had. It was almost disturbingly similar to the powers they had. He didn't like that at all. All these twisted fun-house mirror copies of his friends and he wasn't sure what Hercules was like on this world.

'With how things are going he's probably one of the Avengers,' Barry mused. And left him wondering if the Diana counterpart in this universe was a villain.

The Avenging Archer then fired off a Sonic arrow in the general direction of the hologram and or whatever and it vanished. The real Skrull was clutching their ears a few feet away. The Flash ran in and pelted the Super Skrull with blows. The Fastest Man Alive knocked the Skrull down with one final rabbit punch at mach one.

"Ok let's get going," Wasp called out. "We need to take this ship out before Thor and the other heavy hitters start their attack."

Barry took off to scout ahead inside the ship. Skrulls came out of the shadows to jump him, and Barry stopped and started to spin. The crimson tornado wasn't as good as something Red Tornado could make but it sent the Skrulls flying around the inside of the craft.

The Flash almost took a moment to check the pulses of some of the aliens, but wasn't sure if he could check them like he would a human.

One of them rose to use their Carrion Death touch on the Flash but their hands were sliced off by the Dragonfang.

Barry wondered briefly if such violence was because it was an alien and if this would be where the comics of his reality Tanaka Rei had were going to go. It drove home to Barry that he had to stay on the Avengers and lead by example. As a role model and from his memory the whole Registration issue and before that the mess around Captain America and Iron Man's handling of these Young Avengers, he'd definitely have his work cut out for him. He then remembered from talking with Hal about how Green Arrow had let down his sidekick. Issues weren't as black and white as he liked to remember them being.

The Flash then shook his head and ran forward, as there was time to think about when he wasn't in danger. And to never say what he thought to Ares face. He had a feeling preaching anything that didn't involve violence to that Greek God of War would not go well at all.

Wonder Man whistled as he saw the Flash's speed. Then he found himself in front of...himself. The Skrull then became massive, his costume an eyesore and he carried the weird weapon of Century known as the Parallax.  
Electric arrows had hit the Skrull and were messing up his ionic body.

"I swear that trick never gets old," Ronin remarked loudly.

Simon Williams had to smile slightly at that. That was the Clint Barton he remembered.

Ares purposely kicked the fallen ionic Skrull as he went past him. The alien shapeshifter took off like a football and made a sicken crunch as he collided with the fall wall.

Wasp shook her head. Ares almost made her long for the days when Hercules didn't think she should be leader, and Namor was on the team. Almost.

Captain America wondered how Steve put up with this and stayed sane. It was a complete mystery to him. This unique and diverse group seemed to have as much attitude in nearly each member as Namor.

A barrage of pulse bolts was unloaded on the Avengers, and a stretching Iron Man armor clad Skrull yelled "He loves you!"

"Shut up," Ms. Marvel yelled as she absorbed the energy and with a glowing fist hit the Skrull.

The alien stretched out at that and found out they wanted him to do that as he became a sail as the Flash made hand tornadoes and sent him flying through the air like kite in high winds.

The former Winter Soldier picked up a Skrull blaster and opened fire. Crimson bursts of energy knocked down several Skrulls.

"Now that's a better weapon for a warrior," Ares remarked with a savage grin on his face.

Clint Barton turned to Ms. Marvel. "Seriously who thought adding him to the team was a good idea?"  
"Iron Man," Carol replied.

"That explains that," Clint muttered before taking down a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Super Skrull. "And where is Herc anyway? You'd think he'd be here kicking ass with us."

"No idea," Wasp admitted as she flew by Ronin. "But I know he's doing his part somewhere. Call it a feeling."  
With a savage smile on his face Ares spoke up. "Of course he is. Though I'm sure I could do it better than he could, but I'm a god of war and he's a half drunk bull wrecking everything in his way."

Valkyrie gave Ares a look before charging ahead.

Janet definitely hoped Ares was going to one of those people that had one time on the active roster and then just showed up at the major gatherings for the team. She then shook her head.

"Ronin take Flash, Valkyrie, Captain America, Wonder Man to the command center, I'll take the others to the engine room."

"You know where that is Carol?" Clint asked.

The former Starjammer nodded. "The most heavily defended part of the ship."

"Figures," the former Hawkeye grumbled, though his eyes lit up with excitement.

"Just kick their ass Clint."

V-V-V

Over the Earth a giant version of War Machine opened fire on the Skrull fleet. Inside Suzi Endo watched Rhodey's vital signs. During this she discovered that his body was starting to reject his cybernetic implants. If he didn't have them removed soon after the battle or his mind moved into a cloned body, he would die. Or possibly regaining the Warware armor she remembered him wearing when she met him. That of course being lost in...at this point she wasn't sure where that was lost in now. Maybe Rhodey would remember.

The satellite turned battle armor then shook as the Skrulls let loose on it.

Thor held up his enchanted uru hammer and solar wind bent to the Norse God's command. The charged particles slammed into one of the Skrull ships. It distracted the crew long enough for several dozen Novas to use their gravemetic powers as one to crush the ship flat.

Then the Norse God of Thunder hurled his hammer and it pierced through a massive warship. An Iron Man Skrull thought Thor was easy pickings without his hammer and blasted Thor in the face full power.

If anything it annoyed Thor and with his powerful hand grabbed the Skrull by the arm and snapped it like it was a rotted twig. His hammer returned to his hand and the Odinson slammed his hammer into the chest of the Skrull. Then a massive electrical surge struck the foolish Skrull and he let out a scream that wasn't heard but everyone around them could feel.

"Blue Blazes," Rich Rider muttered as he saw that. Where was this sort of help when he needed it?

Then a golden hammer flew past him and slammed into Gladiator Super Skrull. There was a loud crunch in Robbie's mind as the Stormbringer hit the alien warrior in the face. It looked like it was extremely painful.

"Friend Beta Ray Bill," Thor gasped in shock. He had said that he would return to the stars to get answers.

"I realized that it would be cowardly to leave you and humanity while there was work to be done," Beta Ray Bill stated sounding disgusted with himself. "And these Skrulls will pay dearly for what they did to me!"

If Beta Ray Bill was honest their experiments on him were even more horrifically painful then the processes that made him into the cyborg warrior that he was today. And that which had empowered him had left everyone else physically crippled. He then raised his hammer.

It was then the pair of warriors saw another Galactus Super Skrull with a pair of Fire-Lord Super Skrulls. Thor was not impressed.

"Forward my friend," Thor yelled with his hammer glowing with energy.

It was not a good sign for the Skrulls as Storm Bringer glowed with the same mystical energies and the alien warrior unleashed his rage. The helmet of one of the Galactus Super Skrulls shattered when Stormbringer struck it. The Korbinite warrior then shattered the jaw of a Firelord Super Skrull with his fists. He could imagine the crunch it would have given.

Then a man in a high tech space suit appeared in the battle. The Skrulls ignored him until he blasted an All New All Different X-Men Super Skrull and then snapped the neck of the in armor form alien with ease.

Thor caught sight of the face of the man. It took him a moment to recall him, as the Avengers and X-Men had him on file. And together had battled him in the first public appearance of the man...and only barely won. His real name was Bennet Du Paris, but called himself Exodus, and looked enraged.

"Here me aliens," Exodus called out. "My race does not need you and your pathetic filth taking over. And I know you will treat Homo Superior no better then the flatscans."

"Who invited him?" War Machine remarked as he still remembered Exodus kicking his ass in Genosha years ago.

Then a beam of light started beating the crap out of Super Skrulls. Pulsar had to fight to call out attack names, as she was dealing with her Nextwave baggage.

Seeing Thor again made the former Captain Marvel smile slightly.

"Forward my friends and allies!" the Norse God of Thunder called out. "It is time to show these invaders what happens to those that try to conquer Midgard!"

With that he threw his hammer and sent a Shi'ar Imperial Guard Skrull through a Skrull battleruiser.

Then a massive silver looking metallic dragon appeared. The space station was very eel-like in appearance and fired a massive energy beam at the Skrullian fleet.

"Looks like everyone is showing up for this," Rhodey remarked before feeling like a knife had been shoved into his side and his left side flared with pain.

A Squadron Supreme Skrull punched the stopped giant War Machine and sent him flying through space.  
Rhodey's legs twitched and he felt cold. The armored hero fought through the pain and punched the Skrull into a cruiser.

"I just hope the others are doing better," War Machine wheezed.

V-V-V

"You shouldn't be be part of this Sam," Wolverine stated as X-Force stealthy moved through the Skrull ship.  
Cannonball sighed. "James has everyone completely forgotten when Peter Wisdom brought us under his wing for six months? Or Cable made us X-Force this sort of thing? Really it is beginning to get on my nerves."

Warpath shrugged, "I blame it on your easy going attitude and not talking about. Why 'Star doesn't get invited to these sort of things is what boggles my mind."

"Agreed," Shatterstar remarked as he moved with the stealth of a snake. "It annoys me to no end."

He then stabbed a Nightcrawler Skrull that had been in the shadows with his sword. Green blood flowed as he'd stabbed it in the heart. He then hit the Skrull in the jaw with a bone snapping kick.

Sunspot turned to Wolfsbane, "And you want to get that hardened?"

"I didn't want any of them to get involved with this," Logan growled harshly.

Suddenly they were all knocked around by a massive shockwave of energy.

"He loves you," black clad female skrull with a dagger shape cut out of his costume on her chest.

"Berto how you doing on solar power?" Cannonball asked. Sunspot smirked.

"Full power Sam," the solar powered mutant said confidently.

"You and James charge her, Tabitha keep him off guard, Danni you introduce her to that photon shield and Thing exoskeleton you got, Magma give her a nasty hotfoot, and 'Star...go nuts," Cannonball commanded firmly.

"What will you be doing?" Moonstar asked, with her voice coming out of what appeared to be the Thing's mouth being weird. Even for a group as jaded to the oddities of super heroics as X-Force was.

"Keeping Wolverine from trying to gut me for stealing his team back to where it belongs," Sam said with a slight smile.

"You with me," Shatterstar stated to X-23 before leaping into the fray. The pair worked as a well oiled machine and the Super Skrull barely was able to avoid them. She saw them as the most dangerous to her life and then realized she was wrong as a massive emerald hand grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the ground hard.

"I think this is the first time we've ever worked together Wolverine," the Hulk admitted.

"Infinity Gauntlet mess," Logan commented gruffly. That was one downside of regaining all his memories. He remembered what Thanos had done to him with that power, and the complete and utter terror he and the others felt when the Mad Titan had effectively unlimited and absolute power. And Wolverine hated to be reminded of that sort of fear.

The Hulk was about to say something when a five Super Skrulls with his powers plus the Thing and the Juggernaut slammed into him. The Professor growled and sent them all flying through the air.

"Even with those additions I am the strongest one there is," the emerald goliath remarked proudly.

"That's nice," Logan commented. "Less talk, more world saving."

V-V-V

In the bowels of the Love of Kly'bn Donyell Taylor was frustated. His plans to save his brother, the original Night Thrasher, were getting derailed by this invasion. He honestly didn't care if the rest of the team didn't respect him at all as that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. All that mattered was saving Dwayne from his fate was all that mattered.

Even if it was merely going to create an alternate timeline. Even just doing that was worth it to Bandit.

With a fluid grace Night Thrasher dodged a Super Skrull with the powers of Captain America, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thor, and had a boar's head for a hat for some reason. He had no idea what that was referring to.

Jubilee slammed a Deadpool Skrull against a wall hard and gave Night Thrasher a look of disgust. Ink had by accident, or so he told her, learned Bandit's goals. He gave the team equipment scavenged from Avenger's Mansion to be his running dogs and never even gave an inclination he had a worthwhile goal when he was absent or sneaking around behind their backs.

'If he just came clean with us on trying to save his brother's life we won't have any problems,' the former X-Man thought to herself as she kept an eye on the other problem, which was the trio of Skrulls helping them. She shook her head as it seemed that the Skrulls couldn't get a Captain Marvel that didn't become individualistic for some reason.

Crusader didn't even need to be looking in the direction of the New Warriors, but knew they really didn't trust him. Rightfully so given the invasion, but had this weird feeling that things could have been a lot worse. He shook his head as a had this feeling he'd done this before.

This sensation of having done this before didn't sit well with him as it implied he was laying dieing with his piece of the Cosmic Cube what gave him another chance. He didn't want to think about how he could have been mortally wounded.

He was shaken from his musing by Dust screaming and falling to the ground.

"Is she ok?" 'Kid' Nova asked. Instantly he got dirty looks from the Young X-Men.

"No she isn't," Rockslide snapped harshly. "Now do something useful!"

Suddenly the Skrulls started running away from the New Warriors, Skrull trio, and Young X-Men. One didn't need cosmic awareness to know this couldn't be a good thing. They heard a hiss and suddenly air was being dumped into space.

"Blue Blazes," Robbie Richards called out. Even he was surprised he didn't use something stronger.

"Your parents really strict on swearing?" Ink joked to keep calm.

"Make jokes later," Night Thrasher growled.

Wondra however went through a wall and frantically tried to restore the air or open the doors.

"The second blue button on that panel," Captain Marvel called out, and Jubilee hit it hard.

Air refilled the section they were in and the doors reopened when pressure was restored. There was a look of relief on the face of Kid Nova.

Dust still looked weak and was having trouble standing. Other than Bandit, the New Warriors looked uneasy at what had happened to her.

Xavin flew forward ablaze. "My friends are this way!"

To their surprise Night Thrasher didn't say anything as he followed the Super Skrull. Bucky was right behind them. The sounds of fighting were heard in the distance after they got deeper into the ship.

"So you got any idea where they are?" Rockslide asked Ruth and Captain Marvel.

Blindfold nodded. "In the medical labs."

Cipher walked through the walls to find it, and hoping the Runaways were still alive at this point. Or at least in a shape that they'd want to be still alive. Suddenly there was an explosion in front of her and got to see Captain Marvel fighting a Winter Guard Skrull.

"You should have just asked me for directions," he remarked.

"Sorry...used to working more or less alone," she admitted softly.

Skrulls were knocked past them as the heroes raided the medical lab. There was a smell of blood and antiseptic in the air that was unsettling. Any attempt at humor died on Ink's tongue.

Xavin turned rocky and smashed aside anyone as she looked for her wife. Worry filled the shape shifter's heart that her friends were already in pieces. "Where? Where are they?!"

She then grabbed a random doctor. "Answer me! Where are the Runaways!"

He pointed at a group of pods and got dropped to the ground. Night Thrasher quickly knocked him out before he could blast Xavin in the back.

"You sure that's them?" Phaser asked. Xavin gave him a look.

"It is a valid question!"

Crusader hoped for a Skrull detector and one appeared in his hand and he walked up to the still in pod Runaways. Seconds passed tensely as he made sure they were who they appeared to be. If they weren't it would crush Xavin's spirit.

"Are they really them?" Xavin asked softly. Crusader simply nodded.

Suddenly an alarm sounded. The medical staff panicked and ran away from the heroes.

"Yes, that is not a good thing," Blindfold told her allies.

"That's the self destruct sequence," Xavin told them. "We need to get out of here. Now."

The pods were put into antigravity transport mode and the heroes made a break for it. Around them the SHIELD space helicarrier was blowing up Skrull ships.

"He loves you!" echoed and Super Skrull Multiple Men swarmed them to delay them.

Suddenly Dust turned to sand to tore through them. "All of you go! I'll hold them off!"

"Not you too Sooraya!" Rockslide yelled. Xavin stretched around the rock man and pulled him along.

The rest of the Skrulls on the ship were less fanatical and were taking escape pods and shuttles to get away. A Skrull stealth ship decloaked inside the cargo bay.

"Next stop Earth!" the Thing called out as the door opened. The heroes were quiet as they rushed into the ship.

The Thing noticed they were missing a hero as they flew out of the self destructing cruiser.

"It was her time," Ruth told Ben softly.

"Kid...you sure?" the Thing asked her. Ruth gave a small nod.

"Why?" Rockslide said sadly. "Why did she have to die?"

Dust's death caused Bandit wonder if messing with time might not a be a good idea. He turned away from the others and tears came down his face as he began to truly mourn his brother.

V-V-V

Across the planet, and in space the Skrulls found themselves losing. Like the favor of their gods had been taken from them. Those whose faith was not as strong ran and tried to go underground. Better to live on the Earth for a while than be dead.

Afterwards, in a rebuilt Avengers Mansion, Iron Man met with Giant Man.

"I really made a mess of this didn't I Hank?" Tony asked as he looked out a window.

"From what I gathered you did the warm and fuzzy version of registration," Pym admitted. "Though I think the whole thing was a complete mess. And a Thor clone Tony?"

"He's really an Anti-Sentry weapon," Tony sighed. "I like Bob, but his power and lack of sanity..."

Giant-Man nodded. "You should have told Thor that part."

"Things were strained and then he was dead before we could really fix everything between us," Iron Man told Hank.

"That's still less strange then what has happened to me," Giant-Man remarked as he'd what happened with Tigra and his impostor.

"In any case I heard you wanted to set up your own team of Avengers," Tony said to change the subject.

"Seeing as how the two Avengers teams in New York are reunited, I believe a new West Coast team would be a good idea. Especially after finding out the Pride was real and there is a power vacuum in LA now."

Tony nodded at that. "That's not really a terrible idea. Plus the Order's powers aren't exactly infinite."

"Even with me as the leader?"

"Trust me Hank at this point I think Janet is the only one of us that isn't in a glass house when it comes to questionable command decisions."

"Any word on who will be the next leader of SHIELD?" Pym inquired.

"No idea," Tony admitted. "Not that I'm surprised I got the boot."

"Though Hercules being the one to kick the crap out of a Skrullian Eternal..." Pym mused out loud.

"If we knew about that I'm sure someone would have taunted the Skrullian Queen on that," Iron Man joked. Pym cracked a smile.

"Yeah, I can see Clint doing that."

The door then opened. Wasp entered the room in a white and blue costume.

"You two done?" she asked. "Come on, we have a press conference to hold."

Tony put down the faceplate. "Can't keep the public waiting."

As they left the room, Pym felt a feeling of hope. Like a brighter age was to begin for them.


End file.
